Tim Canova

On Thursday, law professor Tim Canova announced that he would launch a primary challenge to Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Last year, Canova ran against Wasserman Schultz, who stepped down as head of the Democratic National Committee last August amid controversy, in South Florida’s safely blue 23rd Congressional District. Canova raised an insane sum from fellow Bernie Sanders backers who wanted to take their anger out on Wasserman Schultz over her perceived favortism toward Hillary Clinton during the presidential primaries. However, the well-connected Wasserman Schultz defeated Canova 57-43. (In between his two House bids, Canova didn’t rule out a primary bid against Sen. Bill Nelson, but that won’t be happening now.)

Canova did, though, give Wasserman Schultz the closest race of her career, but he still fell far short. That primary took place just weeks after Wasserman Schultz left the DNC after WikiLeaks released unflattering emails stolen from the committee—at a time, in other words, when her image was at its most tarnished. But with the scandal long since faded, it’s tough to see how Canova could finish the job two years later. Moreover, while Canova tried to frame his contest as a battle between the progressive grassroots and a corrupt establishment, he himself has since become a peddler of revolting conspiracy theories.

Prominent conservatives like Sean Hannity have worked themselves into a feverish froth of late insisting—without any actual evidence—that DNC staffer Seth Rich might have been murdered last year because he leaked DNC data to Wikileaks. The D.C. police and Rich’s family say that Rich’s death was the result of a botched robbery, but that hasn’t stopped Hannity from arguing that there’s something else at work—and Canova’s followed suit.

Stunningly, back in January, Canova posted on Facebook that Rich “may have been the Wikileaks source of the leaked DNC emails. He was gunned down, assassinated under suspicious circumstances just days after publication of those leaked emails. Wikileaks has offered a substantial reward to help in the homicide investigation, which appears to be completely dormant.” And Canova hasn’t let it go. In March, he followed up with a since-deleted tweet declaring, “We need open nonpartisan investigation of @DWStweets lies & rigging against @SenSanders, total failure DNC 2010-16, murder of Seth Rich, etc.”

Rich’s parents have repeatedly begged people to stop dragging their son through the mud to advance their own agenda, and we can only hope that Canova will listen and stop spreading these lies.