Meet the Republican candidate who supports GamerGate

The issue of ethics in games journalism has reached the realm of politics following a campaign headed by 28-year-old Republican city council hopeful MacKenzie Kelly.

Kelly, who came into prominence following endorsements from advocates of the GamerGate movement, has spoken publicly about her position on ethics in video game journalism and its relation to her platform.

"[Gamergate has] been diluted quite a bit from what its core base value was," Kelly told the Daily Dot. "I still believe that, at the core of it, there's a group of people who firmly believe that it's about ethics in journalism."

"I don't like the harassment. I don't like the death threats," she added. "We should be having respectful arguments. ... But it's the Internet; there are always going to be trolls."

The Republican hopeful, whose professional career includes modelling and volunteer firefighting, had also hoped to focus on issues including lifting the ban on plastic bags, lowering property tax and improving Austin's growing traffic congestion problems.

However, while the Austin, TX-based candidate revealed earlier today she did not come out ahead following yesterday's election, she also didn't come last.

"1381 votes total tonight. We didn't win, but that's a success. I also didn't come in last. 9% of the vote." wrote Kelly on her official Twitter account.

Kelly raised only $300 during her campaign, after having entered the running late and skipping a necessary eague of Women Voters forum. Despite this, her online presence dwarfs that of her political challengers. Kelly has a Twitter following of over 29,000, more than that of the three leading candidates combined.

The GamerGate movement and Twitter hashtag is a social campaign defined by most supporters as a call to effect change in video game journalism and to defend the "gamer" identity. The movement is difficult to define because what it has come to represent has no central leadership or agreed-upon manifesto. The hashtag was first used by actor Adam Baldwin in August after intimate details of a personal relationship between a video game developer and a video game journalist were made public and led some to allege cronyism between press and developers. The campaign is now also linked to ongoing and well-established harassment of women in video games, including Depression Questcreator Zoe Quinn, Sarkeesian and Giant Spacekat head Brianna Wu, though many of GamerGate's supporters deny the campaign should be blamed for harassment.