Luna is also a member of the House Freedom Caucus; her views have been identified as conservative. She has described herself as a "pro-life extremist".
Family and early life
Anna Paulina Mayerhofer was born in 1989 to George Mayerhofer and Monica Todd, an elementary school teacher and stay-at-home mother, in Santa Ana, California.[1][2] She was raised as a Messianic Jew by her father.[3][4]
Luna's parents never married or lived together;[4] her father had a drug addiction problem[3] and her mother married another man when Luna was nine years old but divorced four years later.[4] Luna was raised in the Orange County cities of Santa Ana, Irvine, and Aliso Viejo, as well as Los Angeles, and has called Santa Monica her hometown.[6] She attended high school in Los Angeles.[1][3]
While she was in the air force, she began to study at the local college.[4] She also modeled during this period, appearing in 2013 in Sport Illustrated's online site, and briefly worked as a cocktail waitress in a gentleman's club.[4][8] She later appeared as a swimsuit model in Maxim magazine in 2014.[1][9][10][2] Luna gained a following as an Instagram influencer.[3]
Luna became the director of Hispanic engagement for Turning Point USA in 2018.[11] In a November 2018 Fox News segment, she compared Hillary Clinton to herpes, leading the network to cut the segment short and host Rick Leventhal and anchor Arthel Neville to apologize to viewers.[12] In 2020, she appeared at a We Build the Wall event as vice president of Bienvenido, an organization dedicated to conservative Hispanic outreach.[13]
Luna was elected as the U.S. representative for Florida's 13th congressional district in the 2022 election, defeating Democratic nominee Eric Lynn, a former senior advisor for Barack Obama. Before the Republican primary, another Republican candidate privately threatened to have her assassinated by a hit squad.[19] In June 2021, Luna was granted a temporary stalking injunction against her primary opponent, William Braddock, after a friend of Luna's recorded Braddock threatening to make Luna "disappear" and claiming he had "access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians". Braddock dropped out of the race after the judge granted the temporary injunction. The judge dismissed the request for a permanent injunction, saying she found one instance of harassment when the law required two.[20]
Luna was challenged in the general election by Whitney Fox, a moderate Democrat and former communications director for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority. [24] Though seen as the only Florida house seat being in striking distance for Democrats, Luna won re-election with 55% of the vote, compared to Fox's 45%. [25]
Additionally in May 2023, Luna sponsored a resolution to have Adam Schiff removed from Congress and fined $16 million.[31]
In June 2023, Luna sponsored a resolution censuring Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff for his past actions as chair of the House Intelligence Committee in leading investigations into then-President Donald Trump.[32] The House agreed to the resolution with a vote of 213-209.[33]
On July 10, 2024, Luna brought forward a privileged resolution to have U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland found in inherent contempt of Congress.[34] The resolution would have imposed a fine of $10,000 per day on Garland for defying a congressional subpoena.[35] The measure failed to pass in a 204 to 210 vote.[36][37]
In June 2022, Luna said of the 2020 United States presidential election, "I believe that President Trump won that election, and I do believe that voter fraud occurred." The previous month, she attended a red carpet event and screening of 2000 Mules, a film that claims to show evidence of widespread electoral fraud in the 2020 election.[40] She authored the 2023 Christian children's book, The Legend of Naranja, which suggests that Biden stole the 2020 election.[41]
Abortion
Luna has said she favors abortion bans, and has called herself a "pro-life extremist".[42][43][44] She has said her anti-abortion stance originates from having dissected a chicken egg in college and seeing the chick react to a scalpel blade: "God was using that opportunity to really wake me up."[2]
Economy
In an August 2022 interview, Luna said that she would support a ban on U.S. oil exports to increase the domestic oil supply, saying, "The United States has literally one of the biggest supplies of cleanest oil in the entire world. There's no reason why we need to be going to places like Saudi Arabia or even Venezuela to get those oil sources." She said this view belonged to an "America First" platform, adding, "If it means not selling to other countries so that here in the United States, we can literally lower the gas prices, that's what I agree with."[45]
Luna has said tourism is one of her highest priorities due to its importance in her district.[46]
Luna's website states that she opposes "radical left-wing gender theory being pushed on our kids".[48][49]
Gun control
Luna appeared on the February/March 2020 cover of Ballistic magazine, which called her "DC's Next 2A Warrior".[1] In February 2023, she was one of several members of Congress seen wearing AR-15 rifle lapel pins.[50]
Twitter
In September 2020, Luna threatened to sue Twitter because the company refused to verify her account, alleging "political prejudice" and calling it "election meddling",[51] and in October 2020, Luna's campaign said it filed a complaint with the FEC over Twitter's refusal to verify Luna's account. The FEC complaint said that Twitter violated the equal time rule by verifying Charlie Crist but not Luna and asked the FEC to force Twitter to verify Luna's account.[52]
During a combative House Oversight Committee hearing on February 8, 2023, Luna alleged that Twitter, the federal government, "leftist nonprofits", and potentially the Democratic National Committee had acted jointly to censor Americans in November 2020 through the Jira project management platform, and that it violated the First Amendment.[53][54]
Foreign policy
In 2023, Luna was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.[55][56] That same year Luna was among 52 Republicans who voted in favor H.Con.Res. 30, which would remove American troops from Somalia.[57][58]
In April 2024, Luna voted against the $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine.[64]
Disputed biographical claims
Religious and ethnic background
Luna has claimed her father raised her to follow Messianic Judaism, an evangelical movement that incorporates Jewish traditions into Protestant Christianity, and that she is "a small fraction Ashkenazi".[3][22][65][66] Members of her extended family have said her father was Catholic and that "they were not aware of him practicing any form of Judaism while Luna was growing up". Her mother has said that Luna's father was a "Christian that embraced the Messianic faith" after getting clean from drug addiction. Her grandfather, Heinrich Mayerhofer, identified as Catholic when he immigrated to Canada in 1954.[3]
In 2020, Luna claimed in a PragerU documentary that her "entire mother's side of the family and father's side of the family on both sides are from Mexico".[7] Her paternal grandfather, however, was German.[3]
Difficult childhood
Luna has said that she "grew up in the welfare system"[67] she was raised by her mother on government assistance with "no family to rely on", and she was raised in a "broken home mentality".[3]
Luna claims that her father was a drug addict. She has said that, at the age of 10, she found his bag of meth.[1] She has also said that her maternal grandmother died of AIDS due to heroin use.[3][7] Her mother Monica refutes this, confirming her own mother was a long-time heroin user and was HIV positive, but actually died of cancer when her daughter (Anna) was only one year old.[68] By 2020, both she (Anna) and her mother (Monica) had chosen the Luna surname as "an homage" to that same woman's maiden name.[3][68]
Luna has claimed that both she and her mother lacked "a strong extended network of people" who could help care for them,[3] and that she had attended "over six high schools" before graduating.[1] Luna's cousin has said, "The whole family kind of raised her—my dad was a part of her life when she was younger and we all kind of coddled her ... She was always a part of everything, all these family gatherings and activities". Luna's aunt said, "She had everything. What she needed and more ... And not only did [Luna's mother] provide for her, but [Luna's grandfather] did, too".[3] Luna has disputed these accounts, saying that she "barely spent any time with them in her entire life". Luna's mother said that she had to rely on welfare for periods of time, especially while she was putting herself through college at the University of California, Irvine, and then at the UCLA School of Law, and that she was the only source of meaningful financial support for the family.[68]
Air Force members who served with Luna in Missouri said that she wore designer clothing and that she had mentioned having nannies as a child.[3] Luna's mother said that she owned a designer coat that she had bought at a thrift store and was known to wear it frequently, and that the idea of her having had nannies is "preposterous".[68]
Father's incarceration
Luna's campaign website biography says that throughout her childhood and teenage years, her father "spent time in and out of incarceration", and that she communicated with him "through letters to jail and collect calls". Luna's mother and aunt said that he served several short stints in jail for not paying child support. Luna's mother also said that he spent at least one year in jail for a drug-related charge.[3]
Luna's father was sentenced to Orange County jail on at least five different occasions. He was convicted for crimes including carrying a loaded gun in public, violating probation, and driving with a suspended license. He was charged but not convicted for assault and battery and possession of illegal drugs.[4] The drug possession case indicated that Luna's father was in custody around the time of two court appearances. The case information did not specify the length of his confinement; the court proceedings lasted about three months.[68]
Home break-in
In 2019, Luna said that she suffered "enduring trauma" after experiencing a "home invasion" by her landlord at 4 a.m. while stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base. "Had my friend Jeremy not been there to protect me, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be standing right here in front of you guys right now."[3] Luna's roommate said she did not remember such an incident. Instead, the roommate recalled a daytime break-in when Luna was not home. A Warrensburg Police Department report described the July 2010 incident as a "burglary not in progress". The report states that Luna and her roommate had reported to their landlord that the home's rear door had repeatedly been left open, so the landlord installed new locks, deadbolts and latches, but the problem persisted. Police records indicate that no suspect was arrested or charged in the case.[3]
Conflict with uncle
During her first campaign for Congress in 2020, Luna unsuccessfully sought a stalking injunction request against her uncle, Edward Mayerhofer, after he questioned her biography on social media.[3]
Luna identifies as a Messianic Jewish Christian.[3] Luna is married to Andrew Gamberzky, a U.S. Air Force combat controller.[1] In 2019, she took her maternal grandmother's maiden name, Luna, to represent her Hispanic heritage.[1] She did this to follow suit from her mother who had first changed her surname to the same, following a finalized divorce.[68] Luna began describing herself as Hispanic in 2019. However, when she registered to vote in 2015, she had marked her ethnicity as "White, not of Hispanic origin."[3]
Luna announced that she gave birth to a son on August 27, 2023.[71]
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvAlemany, Jacqueline; Crites, Alice; Mekhennet, Souad; Stanley-Becker, Isaac; Cramer, Ruby (February 10, 2023). "The Making of Anna Paulina Luna". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 10, 2023. Luna was born Anna Paulina Mayerhofer in 1989 in Santa Ana, Calif. Her father, George Mayerhofer, was a drug addict, according to Luna and other family members, and he and Luna's mother never married.
^Mayerhofer, Anna Paulina (August 2014). "Anna Paulina Mayerhofer"(PDF). Bikini Magazine. p. 35. Originally from Santa Monica, California. I recently got out of the military in January after 5 years of service to pursue my medical education . . . . I have made my personal goal to have traveled to 20 countries before my 25th birthday and this december I will have completed it. I grew up pretty much a tomboy
^ abc"Americanos: Anna Paulina Luna, Mexico". Americanos. April 29, 2020. PragerU. Retrieved February 15, 2023. My entire mother's side of the family and father's side of the family on both sides are from Mexico
^Paz, Christian (December 3, 2022). "Meet the new class of Latinos in Congress". Vox. Archived from the original on January 6, 2023. Retrieved February 11, 2023. In Florida, Anna Paulina Luna of the state's redrawn 13th District picked up the seat vacated by Charlie Crist, the failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate. [...] She also made history by being the first Mexican American woman elected to represent Florida in Congress.
