The January 6 Insurrectionists Take a Victory Lap

While the event was primarily a jubilee, a few senior officials I spoke with expressed a keen focus on what to do now that so many Proud Boys and insurrectionists were free to return home. For Proud Boys leader Ivan Raiklin and Tarrio, that meant running their men for office.

“Every single person here should … run for office,” said Raiklin, who became known for his involvement in election denialism and right-wing organizing. “Every person who has been weaponized over the last 10-11 years, by the Justice Department of Democrats and Republicans, by Congress, by the weaponization linked to the illegal J6 elections, the 2020 election hijacking, the Covid ‘pandemic,’ the January 6 federal selection, all of that – you need to take your institutions back to the local level and start building from the ground up.

“I think it’s really important that my guys run for office,” Tarrio told me. “And I encouraged them to run for office. You know, we’re very active on the local scene in Miami.”