A man accused of battling police with a baseball bat and shield during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol announced a run for the US Senate in Florida.
“WE ARE TAKING OVER THE CAPITOL AGAIN,” Jake Lang, a prominent January 6 defendant, wrote on X, announcing he was seeking the seat vacated by the now secretary of state Marco Rubio in 2026.
Lang never stood trial for charges related to his role in the insurrection, seeking continual delays in his case until he was pardoned alongside about 1,600 others who participated in the Capitol attack when Donald Trump took office.
During his time in the DC jail, what he calls the “DC gulag”, Lang tried to organize a militia, which was initially called the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, or Napalm. He created online fundraisers, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for January 6 defendants. He appeared in the media while in jail and since he was pardoned, talking about the Capitol charges and emerging as one of the most vocal members of the so-called J6 community.
Lang has not expressed regret for his actions on 6 January 2021 and has frequently referred to himself as a political prisoner. Photo and video footage of him on that day show him repeatedly fighting police and yelling things such as: “This is our house. We paid for this fucking building.” At one point in the riot, he wore a gas mask and beat police with a shield and bat, the justice department alleged, in an entrance to the Capitol that saw some of the greatest violence. He posted on social media afterward and wrote: “arrest me.”
Now he wants to go back to the Capitol as a US senator and he believes he can defeat the Republican who was appointed to the seat, former Florida attorney general Ashley Moody. He filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission in February.
“I’m running, really, as a kind of a symbol of resilience and the American spirit of perseverance, and more importantly than anything, of those things as a testimony to what faith can do to turn a dead situation and make it alive again, just as God had done for his own son, Jesus Christ, in the tomb,” Lang told the Guardian.
As to whether he has a shot to win the race, he said: “It’s the same chances I had of leaving that prison cell the way I did. We are in God’s hands, and God has opened up a door for me and my brothers to leave the prison cell. And I believe that God will provide again.”
On his campaign website, he notes that he will have a “100% TRUMP AMERICA AGENDA” and includes priorities such as mass deportation, sealing the border, “large tax cuts” and preventing a third world war.
Lang is from New York and previously told a local publication in his home town that he was considering a run for the US House in a district there. He also told the River Reporter that he hadn’t voted for Trump until 2024, from inside the DC jail.
He told the Miami New Times he chose to run in Florida instead because, in his time there since being released from jail, he had found more acceptance. “They love the Jan Sixers,” he said. He told the Guardian he had longtime family ties to the state, and that Florida is “the most Maga state in the country. The patriotic fervor and love for America is stronger here than any other state.”
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Some Florida Republicans have said they don’t see Lang as a serious contender. Jake Hoffman, the executive director of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, told the Florida Phoenix: “Every cycle, both parties have insane candidates with a less than 0% chance of winning enter a race, but they do it anyway. This is one of those cases.”
Other J6ers have run for political office, but none successfully. Jacob Chansley, the rioter known as the “QAnon shaman” who dressed in horns and shirtless as he entered the Capitol, filed paperwork in 2023 for a congressional run as a libertarian. Ryan Zink talked about his January 6 charges during his unsuccessful run for Congress in Texas and called himself a “political prisoner”.
Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader who was convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol attack, also is reportedly considering a run for office in Florida. He told the Miami New Times in February that it was a “maybe thing” and that he was considering vying for the US House seat vacated by Matt Gaetz. “If I do run, I want to be in that building that they accused me of trying to storm,” he told the publication.
Lang expects other January 6 community members to run for office as well. “The Jan Sixers have risen out and emerged out of these prisons and these gulags, these lions’ dens, and we’re going to slay the giant now, just as David has,” he said. “This is almost a real life, living biblical story, not just mine, but really all the Jan Sixers are – a long journey from degradation, from persecution, to the very halls of government leadership that can ensure for future generations that this never happens again.”
