Facebook Did Not Take Down Congressional Candidate Culp's Page

SEATTLE — Turns out that Facebook did not remove any of Loren Culp's pages after all.

Culp reported via Twitter Monday that one of his pages, 'Insubordinate Cop' had been removed. Culp also posted a screenshot of what appeared to be Facebook's removal notice, which cited unspecified policy violations as the reason it had shut the page down.

"Just before my primary election in about 3 months from now, Facebook decides I should not be able to reach my 85,000+ followers or anyone for that matter. How convenient," Culp tweeted.

However, Culp's official candidate page remains active— and as other commenters quickly noted, it appeared that Culp had actually posted the contents of a phishing scam, posing as an official Facebook message.

In other words: nothing has changed.

Culp has a history of speaking out when he believes he has unfairly targeted. Back when he lost the gubernatorial election to incumbent Jay Inslee in 2020, Culp took a page out of fellow Republican President Donald Trump's playbook: He immediately pivoted to claims that election fraud cost him the race — despite a lack of evidence supporting the allegation. He even filed a lawsuit against then-Secretary of State Kim Wyman, though it was withdrawn after the Attorney General threatened Culp and his lawyer with sanctions.

Culp has since secured Trump's endorsement in his latest endeavour: a bid to replace Dan Newhouse. Newhouse was just one of ten Republicans in Congress to vote in favor of impeaching Trump, drawing the ire of the former president and giving Culp an opportunity to move in and sweep up loyal Trump voters in Eastern Washington.