Known for her rage-bait provocations that set social media ablaze, Republican congressional candidate Valentina Gomez ignited a firestorm Monday with a barrage of personal attacks against journalist Glenn Greenwald, escalating a spat over bigotry, Israel and Islam that exposed raw fissures in conservative circles.
The exchange began when Gomez, a 26-year-old Colombian-born Republican candidate for Texas' 31st Congressional District, declared on X that if elected she would "make Texas the worst place for Muslims."
Gomez posted the threat in reply to British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who had shared a report claiming 48 new mosques had opened in Texas.
"We will ban halal, hijabs & we will begin tearing down every mosque one by one," Gomez wrote. "Those inbred pedophiles are not here to assimilate, they’re here to kill us. Grateful for your faith in me Tommy God bless you."
Greenwald, in response lambasted Gomez.
"When this individual and statements of this kind provoke demands of expulsion from the conservative movement, then maybe it will be plausible that the crusade against Nick Fuentes is about concerns over bigotry or whatever," he wrote. "Until then, it's all clearly just about Israel."
Gomez fired back with a torrent of insults.
"You’re a sick homosexual that dresses in school girl outfits. I feel bad for Jonathan & Joao, the poor kids you bought in Brazil. They rather be sold as slaves than to have a depraved 'guardian' like you. I do not agree with much of what @NickJFuentes says yet I’ve defended him. You’re obsessed with the Jews, yet they’re the ones that will let you live as a degenerate homosexual. On the other hand, muslims, & the rest of the terrorists will just throw you off a roof."
She continued, "I catch pedophiles, and if you’re talking to little boys, I can’t wait to put you in prison. Jews & Christians are United against the terrorist muslims. I can’t wait to make Texas the worst place for muslims, illegals, & pedophiles."
Greenwald retorted: "Get out of our country. Can’t wait until you’re deported. Shut your filthy mouth about my kids. And find a literate adult to read and explain to you the US Constitution on your way out."
He added in a separate post: "It's beyond clear that @ValentinaForUSA doesn't understand the US Constitution or the American way of life."
Gomez, a former National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I swimmer and real estate investor, has run for office twice before.
In 2024, she finished sixth in the Republican primary for Missouri secretary of state with 7.4 percent of the vote, drawing backlash for videos burning LGBTQ+ books and staging a mock execution of an immigrant.
Now challenging Rep. John Carter in Texas' 31st District for 2026, she emphasizes her immigrant roots while pushing hardline anti-immigration stances.
Born in Medellín, Colombia, in 1999, Gomez immigrated legally to the U.S. at age 10 with her family, settling in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her parents are legal immigrants, not undocumented, according to campaign disclosures and biographical accounts.
On fundraising, Gomez initially pledged to "never take a dollar from AIPAC" in a 2025 podcast appearance, criticizing the pro-Israel lobby's influence.
Reports later emerged of her soliciting AIPAC donations, though Federal Election Commission records show no direct contributions from the group as of November 2025.
Her campaigns have relied on small-dollar grassroots funding, totaling over $150,000 in Missouri.
Greenwald, 58, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former constitutional lawyer renowned for breaking the 2013 Edward Snowden leaks on U.S. surveillance at The Guardian, earning the 2014 Pulitzer for Public Service.
A New York native who founded a First Amendment law firm in 1996, he later blogged for Salon before co-founding The Intercept in 2014, from which he resigned in 2020 over editorial disputes.
Now hosting "System Update" on Rumble and writing for outlets like Folha de S.Paulo, Greenwald lives in Brazil with his husband and their two adopted children.
The feud, viewed hundreds of thousands of times, drew swift condemnation from civil rights groups, with the Anti-Defamation League decrying Gomez's rhetoric as "fueled by hate and anti-Muslim bigotry."
Supporters praised her as a fearless warrior against "woke" orthodoxy.
In the end, this isn't just a tweetstorm, it's a symptom of a conservative movement tearing at its seams, where immigrant daughters of legal arrivals hurl slurs at gay journalists abroad, all while waving the flag of American exceptionalism.
Conversation