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Anna Paulina Luna reached 4,000 votes.
As of 7:30 pm he has 10,000 votes.
A man in the ballroom was making a phone call to Charlie Kirk, the 29-year-old who runs the conservative group Turning Point USA. “How much has been said?” Kirk was asking.
“It’s done,” said the employee. “Dude, he won.”
At 7:44 p.m., the candidate, along with her boyfriend, Andy Gamberzky, walked through the front doors of the St. John’s Yacht Club ballroom.
Downstairs, dress-code members-only, elegant and wealthy, sampled the light buffet next to the Commodore Room, where men’s portraits were made to look like wall. four excellent lines. Above, a different kind of Republican is on the verge of becoming a delegate for Florida’s 13th district, a new congressional district that separates the rest of St. Petersburg, and belongs to Democrat Charlie Crist.
“Luna! Luna! Luna!” The music filled the room. They rushed to him, a crush of red, white, blue, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis gear. They picked up their phones. People take their iPads to live stream the show. A woman takes her phone to life a man with an iPad.
At 8:01 p.m., Luna left the crowd: Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), the Republican who will run the House class of 2022, called to apologize. He held a finger against the other ear as he moved. “Thank you, thank you,” he answered the phone to Gamberzky. They had another phone call, from Trump. “We’re waiting,” Luna said. “That’s why my husband picked up the phone.” At 8:10 pm, the race was over. He took the stage, “honored to be endorsed by the greatest president of our lifetime, President Trump, but I’m honored to be endorsed by Governor Ron DeSantis.” He cut short – his Democratic opponent is calling for approval. “I had to answer Eric Lynn’s call, so I jumped out,” he said.
“Put him on the speaker!” a man called out.
“Okay, put him on the speaker,” said another.
You must know the name Anna Paulina Luna. In two months, it will be carved outside the convention center in DC, a symbol of a younger, more diverse, more online generation of Trump’s Republican Party. It won’t take long to appear alongside familiar names, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, on the ranks of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of staunch supporters poised to defeat the Trump campaign. and even more so in the Republican House.
You can find them in the halls of Congress and on Instagram, @realannapaulina or @apl, where he shares headlines, selfies and online marketing related Videos with his over 486,000 followers. “That’s Anna Paulina Luna,” said Kirk, who hired Luna as Turning Point USA’s Hispanic communications director in August 2018. when he introduced her on his podcast last month.
“APL,” Kirk said, “maybe AOC. That would be fun.”
You should also know that Anna Paulina Luna or APL is a name and brand she chose for herself. In today’s politics, in a party modeled after the Queens-born business magnate, he has also become a leading figure. — testing new information and new slogans in real time, on the stage, in front of the public, on the campaign trail and in the Oval Office — A caring identity is something you take on and do.
Like some of her fellow voters on Tuesday night, Luna has been falsely accused of election fraud and promoting an anti-abortion campaign, an issue she first came to after she undid the results. chick in college and see a baby crawling under her head. “God is using that opportunity to wake me up,” he said in a podcast interview this summer. But what makes Luna an issue among Republicans is his ability to defy criticisms of the politics of his generation: “There’s a real sense that young voters tend to be moderate,” Luna said. say the Yacht Club. “Conservative politics transcends age, race, gender. We’ve been able to cross the divide. This idea is more than politics — it’s a lifestyle. It’s something we really believe in. .”
Luna was born in 1989 in Santa Ana, Calif., as Anna Paulina Mayerhofer.
He served as a flight controller in the Air Force, at the age of 19. Eight months after joining the army, he met Gamberzky. After moving to Florida and eventually leaving the Air Force, Luna worked as a model, cocktail waitress at an elite club and Instagram influencer. He said he went from 30 to 40,000 followers before joining politics. His introduction to a larger audience came after a video he recorded of human trafficking on the Mexican border went viral, Kirk called out.
“I didn’t really know who Charlie was,” Luna said on her podcast. “I know this sounds weird, but I don’t know what charity is.”
In 2019, according to the Tampa Bay Times, she filed paperwork with the Clark County Clerk in Washington state, where she and Gamberzky have a home, to change her last name. He chose a name from her grandmother, who came from Mexico City, to celebrate her Hispanic heritage, Luna’s mother, Monica Todd, said at the Yacht Club. Todd said his family and daughter are Mexican the father is half-German, half-Mexican. Luna has identified as half-White, half-Mexican, saying she doesn’t want to favor one side or the other.
She was 29 when she became Anna Paulina Luna.
That was the name on the ballot when he came to vote on Election Day in St. in the city black BMW. Luna walked onto the stage in a red dress and matching heels. In the evening, he turns all-blue. Her husband leaned back: “Ready for the red wave?” he asked.
“We’re in red mode!” Luna said. “I’m excited.”
In the parking lot, Sam Wilson, 22, and Olivia Carson, 19, stood outside in matching Luna T-shirts, waiting to greet the candidate. Wilson, the employee who started the party that night at the Yacht Club, joined Luna while he was sitting for Boebert on Capitol Hill. Carson met her at a Donald Trump Jr. event when she was in high school. They are the two main staff members of Luna’s campaign – he is the only campaign staff member, another sign of the new Republican grass roots, which has been eliminated by DC’s strategic campaigns for young people, loyal candidates and potential candidates. control the scene, by adjusting the brightness of the TV camera.
Luna’s battle with St. Petersburg, and an unsuccessful congressional bid two years ago to challenge Crist, while he still holds the seat, has sparked speculation, brutality and wild headlines. In August, before Luna’s first match, referee Roger Stone joined his people and wrote an article attacking Luna and calling her a liar. Trump, he said, was “wrong” to support his campaign. In a text message, Stone said he stood by the allegations in his piece, “I think it’s more important for the Republicans to win the house so I hope He succeeded in winning today.” (“He’s an interesting guy,” Wilson said of Stone.)
Outside the polling place, next to a One America News camera, a reporter stood for a live interview with the candidate. Luna took off her glasses and looked at the sun like a reporter ask about Trump.
The former president said he is preparing to launch another re-election campaign on November 15, teasing the announcement during a rally in Ohio the night before the intermediate competition. “Every time I see her, I feel like I’m getting taller,” Luna said. “So I don’t know what he’s doing, but I’m very happy to hear that he had a very good reading on November 15.
Twenty miles away in Tampa, Trump’s challenger and Luna’s governor, Ron DeSantis (R), is holding his re-election campaign. Luna has become loyal to the couple. (“It’s not unusual now to see Trump-DeSantis 2024 flags,” Luna said in 2021.)
In the parking lot, Wilson and Carson made their plans for election night.
“How big is a 65-inch TV? Because I got two 65-inch TVs.
“Oh, that’s great.”
At the polls eight hours later, no one needed televisions to watch the returns.
Luna’s competition was over as she walked through the doors of the ballroom.
She and her husband stayed up until just after 9 p.m., posing for photos until the room looked good. His margin has increased to 20,000 votes. DeSantis leads the million.
When they left, Luna’s husband was still on his phone, waiting for that call from Trump.
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