seat recently vacated by the resignation of Katie Hill, an office also being pursued by Democratic Assemblywoman Christy Smith and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos. Uygur ran in two primary elections on March 3: the special election primary to fill the vacant seat through January 2021 and the Democratic primary for the next full term (decided in the 2020 November election). Uygur raised over $100,000 in small donations in the first three hours since announcing his candidacy. That figure rose to $796,000 in the remainder of the quarter. Uygur has positioned himself as left-wing, supporting single-payer healthcare, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and overturning Citizens United v. FEC. In the wake of the 2019 Saugus High School shooting, he supported strict gun control laws. He criticized his Democratic opponent, Christy Smith, for her opposition to Medicare for All. Uygur's primary issue was to get money out of politics. He also opposes war with Iran and supports passing the Green New Deal. Uygur's candidacy was initially endorsed by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders who had to retract his support after crude and degrading comments Uygur had made in recent years about women and provocative statements about Jews, Muslims and other groups were discovered. Uygur came in fourth place out of 12 candidates with a 6.6% share of the vote. As no candidate earned 50 percent of the vote or more, the top two vote-earners, California Assembly member Christy Smith and navy officer Mike Garcia, advanced to the runoff. Rebellion PAC In 2020 he co-founded Rebellion PAC, a political action committee with a focus on running advertisements in support of progressive electoral candidates, alongside Brianna Wu. Controversies Denial of Armenian Genocide While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Uygur wrote several articles including a denial of the Armenian genocide and disparaging comments about women. He disavowed these comments in 2019. Comments about women In the early 2000s Uygur posted a series of blog posts which were described as sexist. one the posts said “I had one of the best nights of my life at Mardi Gras. I kissed over 23 different women, saw and felt countless breasts, and was in a wonderful drunken stupor thanks to my friend John Daniels". Another post said “It seems like there is a sea of tits here, and I am drinking in tiny droplets. I want to dive into the whole god