Nazi Salute Gadfly, Patriot Prayer Leader Get Thousands Of Votes

SEATTLE, WA - Amid the dozens of other races in the August primary election, you might've missed some of the more interesting candidates who ran in the U.S. Senate race against Maria Cantwell. Twenty-eight people lined up to challenge Cantwell this year, and some of the more out-there candidates managed to earn thousands of votes.

Among those candidates was Alex Tsimerman, a gadfly known for his tendency to give a Nazi salute when he speaks at Seattle City Council meetings. The Council banned Tsimerman from meetings last July due to his behavior. He ran against Cantwell for the Standup America party (no relation to the Stand Up America nonprofit group) and got 900 votes.

But that's nothing compared to Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson's performance in the primary.

Gibson ran as a Republican in the primary and got over 24,000 votes, enough to put him in fourth place behind Republican Keith Swank, and the top two vote-getters, Susan Hutchison and Cantwell. Just a few days before the primary, Gibson was in Portland holding a rally that ended in violent clashes with police. A few of Gibson's supporters even came decked out in Confederate flags. He's held similar rallies in Seattle, including the 2017 "anti-sharia" march.

And as usual, GoodSpaceGuy was in the race. He's a perennial candidate for various offices - he ran for King County Executive in 2017. He got about 4,500 votes, which means he won't be in the general election. But look for him (and probably Tsimerman) next year on a ballot near you.

Image via the Seattle Channel