Candace Owens
Candace Amber Owens Farmer (née Owens; born April 29, 1989) is an American conservative political commentator, author, activist, and television presenter.[2][3]
Candace Owens
- Political commentator
- political activist
- author
2017–present
3
Michael Farmer (father-in-law)
Described as "the new face of black conservatism",[4] Owens has been recognized for her pro-Trump activism despite being initially critical of the former president of the United States Donald Trump and the Republican Party.[5] She is known for her criticism of Black Lives Matter.[6][7][8] Owens served as the communications director for the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA between 2017 and 2019.[9] In 2018, Owens co-founded Blexit along with former Tucson police officer Brandon Tatum.[10][11][12] In 2021, she joined The Daily Wire and began hosting Candace, a political talk show.[13] She was dismissed from The Daily Wire in March 2024 following a series of comments perceived as antisemitic and months of tensions with co-host Ben Shapiro and other Daily Wire staff over their differing views on the Israel-Hamas war.[14][15][16][17][18]
Politically, Owens has expressed skepticism about the extent of white supremacy's impact on society and has voiced opposition to both COVID-19 lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines. She has promoted numerous conspiracy theories.[19]
Early life and education
Born in White Plains, New York, Owens was raised with her siblings by her grandparents from around the age of 11 or 12, after her parents divorced. She is the third of four children.[4][20] She said her paternal grandfather Robert Owens, a black American, was born in North Carolina.[20] Owens is also of Caribbean American heritage through her grandmother, who is originally from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.[21] She is a graduate of Stamford High School.[22]
In 2007, while a 17-year-old senior in high school, Owens received three racist death threat voicemail messages, totaling two minutes, from a group of white male classmates which included the son of then-mayor and future Democratic governor Dannel Malloy. [23][24][25][26] Joshua Starr, the city's superintendent of schools, listened to the voicemail messages and said that they were "horrendous".[26] Owens's family sued the Stamford Board of Education in federal court, alleging that the city did not protect her rights, resulting in a $37,500 settlement in January 2008.[22][27]
Owens pursued an undergraduate degree in journalism at the University of Rhode Island.[20] She dropped out after her junior year because of an issue with her student loan.[20] Afterwards, she worked as an intern for Vogue magazine in New York.[22][28] In 2012, Owens took a job as an administrative assistant for a private equity firm in Manhattan, later moving up to become its vice president of administration.[22]
Early career
Degree180 and anti-conservative blog
In 2015, Owens was CEO of Degree180, a marketing agency that offered consultation, production, and planning services that included a blog on a variety of topics[20][6] written by Owens and other commentators.[29] In a 2015 column that Owens wrote for the site, she criticized conservative Republicans, writing about the "bat-shit-crazy antics of the Republican Tea Party"; she also added that "The good news is, they will eventually die off (peacefully in their sleep, we hope), and then we can get right on with the OBVIOUS social change that needs to happen, IMMEDIATELY."[20][30][31][32] In 2016, the blog featured an article mocking Donald Trump's penis size.[6][33][34]
Privacy violation, Gamergate, and political transformation
Owens launched SocialAutopsy.com in 2016, a website she said would expose bullies on the Internet by tracking their digital footprint.[20][30][22] The site would have solicited users to take screenshots of offensive posts and send them to the website, where they would be categorized by the user's name.[22] She used crowdfunding on Kickstarter for the website. The proposal was immediately controversial, drawing criticism that Owens was de-anonymizing (doxing) Internet users and violating their privacy.[20][35] According to The Daily Dot, "People from all sides of the anti-harassment debate were quick to criticize the database, calling it a public shaming list that would encourage doxing and retaliatory harassment."[36] Both conservatives and progressives condemned the website.[20]
In response, people began posting Owens's private details online.[20] With scant evidence, Owens blamed the doxing on progressives.[20][35] Following that, she earned the support of conservatives involved in the Gamergate harassment campaign, including right-wing political commentators such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich.[20] Subsequently, Owens became a conservative, saying in 2017, "I became a conservative overnight ... I realized that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals were actually the trolls ... Social Autopsy is why I'm conservative."[20] Kickstarter suspended funding for Social Autopsy, and the website was never created.[35]
Legal issues
During an Instagram livestream on June 22, 2021, Owens made accusations about former Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik, accusing her of money laundering, tax fraud, illegal drug use, and misusing campaign funds. Owens also said that Klacik is a "madame" who recruits strippers for a strip club owned by her husband.[167][168][169][170] Owens said she found out about this after talking with a woman who claimed to have worked as a stripper at Klacik's strip club.[171]
Klacik denied the allegations and repeatedly asked for Owens to take down the video, which she refused to do.[168][169] In July, Klacik filed a lawsuit against Owens seeking $20 million for defamation and claiming that the allegations have resulted in Klacik losing political support from donors, being removed from public events, a book deal cancellation, and harassment of Klacik and her family.[167][169][171] In a statement, Jacob S. Frenkel, Klacik's attorney, said: "The defendant chose to use her huge social media platform to attack a respected Baltimore political figure" and that "We are using the proper forum — the power of the courts — to respond."[169][171] The suit was dismissed with prejudice in December 2022 and Klacick had to pay Owens.[172][173]
In April 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Florida against LGBcoin, a cryptocurrency company, Owens, stock car racing driver Brandon Brown, and NASCAR alleging that the defendants made false statements about the LGBcoin and that the founders of the company had engaged in a pump and dump scheme.[174]
Controversies
Dispute with family of Mollie Tibbetts
In August 2018, Owens had a dispute with Sam Lucas, cousin of Mollie Tibbetts, who had been murdered by Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 24-year-old Mexican undocumented immigrant.[175] Tibbetts's cousin said that Owens had exploited Tibbetts's death for "political propaganda".[176][177] Owens responded by describing Lucas's criticism as a "strange" attack on Trump supporters. Later that month, the University of Iowa's chapter of Turning Point USA criticized Owens for "public harassment" towards a member of Tibbetts's family, and the executive board members of the chapter all resigned in protest.[178]
Promotion of conspiracy theories
Owens has been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories, including claims that the Moon landings were faked, mostly through her social media profiles and television and media appearances.[179] Owens has appeared on fringe conspiracy websites, such as InfoWars.[30][7] In 2018, she was a guest host on Fox News, and began to distance herself from the far-right conspiracy websites, although she refused to criticize InfoWars or its hosts.[20]
During the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts targeting prominent Democrats, Owens took to Twitter to promote the conspiracy theory that the mailings were sent by leftists.[180] After authorities arrested a 56-year-old suspect who was a registered Republican and Trump supporter, Owens deleted her tweet without explanation.[181]
In March 2024, Owens endorsed the false conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, was secretely transgender. Owens stated she was "willing to stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man... The implications here are terrifying.[182]
Personal life
Owens met her British husband, George Farmer, in 2018 at the launch event for Turning Point UK, a conservative student organization. George Farmer, the son of Lord Farmer, was the chairman of Turning Point UK at the time. The two developed a connection through their shared conservative values and eventually started dating before George's proposal to her just weeks after their first meeting. The two became engaged in 2019 and were married in August that year at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Virginia.[28][199][200][201][202] Numerous guests were present at the ceremony, including Larry Elder and Charlie Kirk.[203]
Since her marriage, Owens is now also (officially) known as The Hon. Mrs. George Farmer.[204][205]
Owens gave birth to a boy in January 2021,[206] a daughter in July 2022[207] and another boy in late November of 2023.[208]
On April 2024, Owens announced that she had converted to the Catholic Church and had been baptised in the Brompton Oratory.[209]
