During the Trump presidency, the conspiracy theorist (and then some) group, Q-Anon were among his biggest supporters. That group has grown by leaps and bounds since Trump lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. But for Republicans who are smart enough to realize that the whole Q-Anon thing is a farce, the group is becoming their albatross.

Aside from the “founding belief” of Q-Anon — the belief that the Democrats are really run by a secret cabal of baby eating pedophiles, the group has morphed into a whole slew of conspiracy theories. It seems that if anyone can imagine it, the Q-Anon followers will believe it.

For example, back on September 3rd of this year, everyone who got vaxxed was supposed to start turning into zombies according to one of their many conspiracy theories.

While giggling at some of the outlandish claims they make, some candidates on the GOP side aren’t laughing with them. Some are trying to downplay their existence and others are running away from any association with the group as fast as they can.

Many of the “Q” candidates got eliminated in the primaries, but some are still around. And most are losing.

For example, Pennsylvania Republican candidate for Governor, Doug Mastriano, who had enthusiastically embraced Q-Anon in the past is now trying desperately to distance himself from the group. He trails Democrat Josh Shapiro by near double-digits in most polls, while other races in the state have been much more competitive. That includes the Senate race where even carpetbagger and Turkish citizen, Dr. Oz is doing better than Mastriano.

In Michigan, Trump-endorsed secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, who was scheduled to speak at a QAnon-affiliated conference in Las Vegas last year, has significant unfavorable ratings and low recognition in state polling with about six weeks until the election. She appears headed for a loss.

In Arizona, where Q is very big, news outlets are reporting that seats that may have been ripe for flipping to the GOP are now in serious trouble as candidate’s associations with the group become more widely known.

In Maryland, Trump-backed Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox, who was a guest speaker at an April Q-Anon conference alongside Mastriano, trails Democrat Wes Moore by 20+ points and has been emphatically denounced even by Republican Governor Larry Hogan as a “Q-Anon conspiracy theorist” in a letter he wrote to the Wall Street Journal that appeared in the paper earlier this year.

In Ohio, Republican J.R. Majewski, is now feared to have jeopardized his chances amid allegations that he lied about his military service in addition to his alleged Q ties.

Despite all this, Trump continues to seemingly embrace the group more and more as his legal challenges mount and some more traditional Republicans distance themselves from the former POTUS. That doesn’t surprise some analysts and folks who have known Trump. They collectively see that Trump is totally driven by his own ego and as the Q-Anon folks buddy up to him as others create some distance, he naturally embraces the conspiracy theorists.

That could create big problems for the GOP and eliminate any chance they might have had to capture one or both houses of Congress.