Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio will step down from his position in September while the group – a far-right, self-described chauvinist gang labelled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – focuses its efforts around local politics in the aftermath and political fallout from the Capitol insurrection.
In an interview with NPR, Mr Tarrio said he will leave his role as national chairman to focus on his Florida chapter, while other members “start getting more involved in local politics, running our guys for office from local seats, whether it’s a simple GOP seat or a city council seat.”
At least one former Proud Boys member, Joel Campbell, is running for a city council seat in Topeka, Kansas, though he told NPR that if he was to seriously pursue his political ambitions, “I could not be associated with them anymore.”
“They work symbiotically with right-wing media and a power structure – helmed by Trump – that is eager to clamp down on protesters and enact political revenge on progressive constituencies like Portland,” she wrote.
Dozens of people with alleged ties to the group are among the hundreds of people who were arrested or under investigation in the wake of the Capitol insurrection, with several men charged with conspiring to attack the halls of Congress, fueled by Mr Trump’s “stolen election” narrative to forcibly overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Southern Poverty Law Center is a hate group.