The congresswoman who knows how to go viral

Anna Paulina Luna has a secret to becoming popular.

In the space of a month, the Florida Republican espoused a CIA whistleblower theory about JFK’s assassination records, promised new classified UFO documents, joined forces with MAHA activists to target pesticide manufacturers and publicly sought a run for chairman of the Republican National Committee.

It’s an eclectic agenda, but it has one basic element in common: high-octane internet virality. The 37-year-old congresswoman has become one of the most aggressive practitioners of attention politics on Capitol Hill, thriving in carefully orchestrated public confrontations and MAGA-friendly internet rabbit holes.

Her approach has earned her a loyal online following and established the two-term lawmaker as a rising figure in Republican grassroots politics. It also angered many of her colleagues, including Republicans, who privately described her as impulsive, media-obsessed and willing to look beyond the facts to dominate the screen.

“I’m Mike Johnson’s biggest headache,” Luna said with a laugh in an interview, referring to the House speaker, a Republican.

Luna enters Congress in 2023 and has already established a presence online: The Air Force veteran previously served as a model for Turning Point USA, a conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012 that quickly expanded into colleges and high schools. She built on this and to date has around 790,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 1 million X followers on her personal account. While Luna says she rejects the influencer label, her X account biography includes a link to a 2023 profile titled “Influencer Coming to Congress.”

Key to Luna’s social media prowess is her ability to identify politically explosive issues of interest to the Republican base. She pushed to oust colleagues who faced accusations of unethical behavior and misconduct while wading into policy debates that divided the Republican conference. Meanwhile, in her role as chair of the House Oversight Task Force on Federal Secrets Declassification, she frequently dabbled in popular conspiracy theories.

Her critics attribute her tendency to engage in arguments to a search for attention, arguing that her positions are sometimes contradictory or that she is willing to distort information or make claims without evidence to get her message across.

“She’s extremely talented, but she’s operating outside of process, and I think that’s a problem institutionally,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who is retiring. He described Luna as part of a change in lawmakers’ compliance with House etiquette rules that he said began during the coronavirus pandemic when lawmakers have been largely virtual.

Luna said the criticism was the result of “their feet on the fire.” She said she was proud of her record of circumventing House Republican leadership to advance their agenda and claimed that if more lawmakers knew the rules, they could do the same. House Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have both been the focus of her actions but have refrained from publicly confronting her.

“Everything I have to do is operating outside of normal procedures because if you don’t comply, they will intentionally block your legislation, and I refuse to give up my autonomy,” Luna said.

Her platform is powerful: Several House Republicans are privately uncomfortable with her approach, declining to be named, noting that they don’t want her or her online allies following them on social media.

“While she has a large following on Twitter, I would not turn to her for legislative advice,” said Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.

Luna’s small group of allies on Capitol Hill are fiercely loyal, ranging from conservatives to centrists. They said she offered support even when it was politically inconvenient and believed she succeeded in drawing attention to issues that mattered to her and the American public.

“People may not like the way she does things, but no one can say she’s ineffective,” said Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, who described Luna as a friend.

Luna’s status as a spoiler within the party dates back in part to last year, when she pushed the House to allow new parents to vote by proxy in Congress. Her push to work with Democrats sparked a backlash from conservatives and contributed to her decision to quit the House Freedom Caucus. She said she still hopes Congress adopts such a policy.

But Luna has also publicly argued with or pressured party members on several occasions.

She has long pushed for Congress to ban the trade, arguing that members of Congress “should not be able to use insider knowledge to enrich themselves.” She has openly collaborated with Democrats on populist issues, such as introducing legislation with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who is often maligned by Republicans, to cap credit card interest rates.

At times, Luna’s quick engagement online has also sparked controversy.

Last week, Luna said she was pursuing charges against the co-founder of left-wing group CODEPINK, claiming she followed her away from the House Foreign Affairs Committee and “hit” her. CODEPINK later posted a video of the interaction on X, showing co-founder Medea Benjamin lightly touching her arm. Luna responded that Benjamin “crossed a personal line that should never be crossed.”

Last month, Luna amplified online and on television the claims of a CIA whistleblower who claimed that intelligence officials had removed boxes related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was handling the declassified MKUltra human experimentation program. She said the incident looked like an “internal coup” during the NewsNation hit — when social media and other outlets used the interview to claim that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s office had been raided.

Hours later, Gabbard’s press secretary said publicly that the “raid” claim was false. Luna insists she never used the term “raid,” saying she derived the term from news reports from whistleblower accounts. She believes Congress must investigate the situation. She also said she met with the CIA shortly afterward to learn about their side of the story.

Days earlier, Luna was embroiled in a conflict between MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) activists and House Republican colleagues, pledging to “blow up the farm bill” because of language that would protect pesticide manufacturers from health-related lawsuits. Luna successfully introduced an amendment to remove that language from the bill. Some Republicans blame her for leading MAHA activists to follow them.

Luna admitted the fight created a feud. She feels like she tends to solve problems that mothers agree on. Some of her colleagues believe this is an example of her focusing on something she doesn’t fully understand just to get TV time.

“I actually got a text message from a member [Agriculture] The committee said I was fighting the Pesticide Liability Shield to get attention and that I was a damn liar,” Luna said.

Luna was also in the news a month ago. She made headlines when she ousted Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-Texas, and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., over alleged sexual misconduct. Before the two embattled lawmakers resigned in mid-April, she threatened an expulsion vote pending an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

“I was one of the only members of Congress who was willing to call my party and others and tell them to leave,” she said.

Her critics say her defense of women has been inconsistent at times and that she has sometimes made accusations without evidence.

Luna has accused Sen. Ruben Gallego of sexual misconduct, which she says is based on accounts from other women, and she has referred the matter to the Senate Ethics Committee. A spokesman for the Arizona Democratic Party dismissed Luna’s claims as “a right-wing conspiracy theory repeated by fringe far-right members of Congress.” Gallego’s office said the senator took the initiative to meet with the ethics committee in April.

Luna also refused to sign a bipartisan release petition forcing the release of documents related to late sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, as the Trump administration pressured Republican supporters to oppose the measure. Luna said she supported their release but opposed the petition because she did not want to “deliberately be used to participate in the personal fight that is still going on in the election.”

She also dismissed the accusations against President Trump as frivolous or unsubstantiated. The difference, Luna said, was the “evidence” presented against House members. “While we interviewed multiple people who have accused the president, there was no evidence.”

Luna said that while it is an “honor and privilege” to represent her district, staying in Congress is not her long-term goal.

“I think a lot of people want to do this for 20 years,” Luna said. “I don’t want to do this for another 20 years.”

Write to Olivia Beavers: Olivia.Beavers@wsj.com with sabrina rodrigues sabrina.rodriguez@wsj.com