The Virginia congressional candidate who allegedly assaulted the executive director of the National Butterfly Center in Mission has been prohibited from attending a private Republican fundraiser taking place in McAllen this weekend.
In a video posted to her campaign Facebook page and shared to her Twitter account, Kimberly Lowe, the Roanoke woman who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 9th Congressional District of Virginia, said she has been barred from attending the three-day long event that has drawn well-known Republicans from across the country.
“I got canceled by the event organizers,” Lowe said in the video. “I paid for an expensive VIP ticket so that way I could get a tour with Gen. Flynn and Tom Homan so that way we could get a better perspective, but Mark Finchem and Christie Hutcherson with Women Fighting for America believed the lies of the media and they withheld my diamond pass to get on the bus for the tour.”
Finchem, a Republican state representative from Arizona, was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, though he denies having gone inside the building during the insurrection, according to reporting by NPR.
Finchem is also a supporter of QAnon who believes that the 2020 election was “stolen,” despite Republican election officials in his own state declaring Arizona’s results “free, fair and accurate.”
Hutcherson, meanwhile, is the CEO and founder of Women Fighting For America, the organization putting on the “We Stand America” rally this weekend.
The three-day long event, which began Friday, is slated to include several speakers who once served high-ranking positions within the Trump administration.
That includes Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who later resigned his post after it was revealed he had misled then-Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had had with Russian diplomats.
It also includes former ICE Director Tom Homan and former Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller was also slated to appear.
Kimberly Lowe cancelled at We Stand America America Tour by Mark Finchem and Khristy Hutcherson at WFFA – Women Fighting for America – they seem to be in cahoots with the far left fake news – phonies – https://t.co/3ntlglQnRw
— Kimberly Lowe (@kim4va) January 29, 2022
Lowe drove to Texas several weeks ahead of the rally, documenting her journey along the Texas-Mexico border by posting Facebook Live videos to her campaign’s Facebook account.
Lowe traveled to the border with her three children and another woman identified only as “Michelle.”
After stops in Del Rio and Laredo, Lowe arrived in the Rio Grande Valley, where she hoped to see migrants crossing the river in “rafts (that) are provided for by the cartel,” she can be heard saying in one video.
She attempted to access the Rio Grande through a private road on the National Butterfly Center’s 100-acre preserve, which is private property. When the center’s executive director, Marianna Treviño Wright, told Lowe and Michelle to leave, the pair got into an altercation with Treviño Wright.
During the altercation, Lowe accused Treviño Wright several times of condoning child sex trafficking and appeared to have begun another Facebook Live stream repeating such comments, which prompted Treviño Wright to try to block the woman from broadcasting.
Treviño Wright claims Lowe assaulted her by shoving her to the ground. Her companion, Michelle, then yells at Treviño Wright to “Get the f – – – down, b – – – -!”
Lowe, meanwhile, disputes the allegations, instead claiming in an emailed statement that it was Treviño Wright who had attempted to “kidnap” her.
“In short this woman verbally and physically assaulted us, stole my phone, kidnapped us, and tried to keep us from leaving, and filed a false police report,” Lowe said in the statement.
However, video and audio recordings of the incident appear to corroborate Treviño Wright’s version of events.
Treviño Wright provided copies of both video and audio recordings of the incident to The Monitor, including surveillance footage from the butterfly center, an audio recording she made with her phone, and video that Lowe posted to her Facebook page, but which she has since deleted.
During a phone interview with The Monitor, Lowe claims that Treviño Wright “lost her mind” simply because of Lowe’s political affiliation.
Meanwhile, in the Facebook Live video Lowe posted Friday about the We Stand America rally, she lambasts Finchem and Hutcherson for “believing a left wing, left news hit pieces (sic) done on me to defame and slander me without any discussion.”
“I will walk through any fire, even when I get canceled by the left and the right. That tells me I am walking on the right path — to be canceled by your own people, that is disgusting. Shame on you. I’m not going away. I’m here to save America,” Lowe said near the end of the video.
