Your friendly neighborhood Jan. 6 participant may also be your next elected official.

Adam Johnson, also known as “Podium Guy” or “Lectern Guy,” is running for local office in Florida. Johnson, who posed with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern during the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, served 75 days in jail and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for his actions that day in Washington, DC. He was later one of the more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Johnson doesn’t really have much going for him beyond his connection to the insurrection. According to a recent profile in The Washington Post, he has rarely voted, still believes the 2020 election was stolen and has a chip on his shoulder about his sentencing following his actions at the Capitol.

"Saying I’m guilty betrays my fundamental belief that I had a right to go protest," Johnson said.

Have we forgotten what happened on Jan. 6, 2021?

Yet Johnson’s still got momentum, thanks to his 15 minutes of fame. Described as a “part-time influencer,” he’s trying to turn his meme into political aspirations, and it’s embarrassing to watch. His campaign logo features the outline of him with Pelosi’s lectern, his other arm waving to the camera.

In March, he revisited Pelosi’s office in Washington, DC, for a photo-op outside her door.

As time passes and we collectively forget the events that transpired five years ago, we’re likely to see more Jan. 6 rioters running for elected office. It is their right to do so; it is also the right of the people to keep them from holding power.

As for the party of law and order, it sure seems like Republicans have amnesia about the time their supporters overtook the U.S. Capitol by force. Like with Trump himself, it seems that the rules do not apply to people who vote for the GOP.

Insurrectionists running the government? The GOP seems down.

Johnson isn’t the only Jan. 6 rioter running for office:

Brian Mock, who was convicted of assaulting police officers at the U.S. Capitol and sentenced to nearly three years in prison, is running for the Minnesota Senate.

Tyler Dykes, who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and agreed that his use of a police riot shield constituted a dangerous weapon, is running for the U.S. Congress to represent South Carolina.

David Medina, who allegedly smashed a wooden “Speaker of the House” sign belonging to Pelosi, is running for governor of Oregon.

None seems to have shown remorse for their actions in 2021.

“There were absolutely irregularities with a lot of the stuff that was going on,” Dykes said of the election results on WCSC.

It feels like we're living in two realities: one where some members of the Republican Party stormed the Capitol at the behest of Trump in an effort to steal a free and fair election, and one where Republicans were treated unfairly on Jan. 6, 2021. I fear this will only continue the further we get from that day.

Florida voters in Manatee County will decide whether Johnson is a worthy candidate to lead them on local issues despite his past, and there’s good precedent that they’ll reject him. In Texas, Jan. 6 rioter Larry Brock ran a primary challenge for a seat in the state legislature and lost.

Manatee County reelected Trump with 61% of the vote in 2024 – a majority, yes, but not as much of a blowout as it could have been. And with the recent news that a Democrat won a special state election in the Florida district that includes the president's Mar-a-Lago estate, anything is possible.

But for a lot of MAGA conspiracy theorists, Jan. 6, 2021, has furthered their distrust in the U.S. government, claiming that the police were too forceful and the sentences too harsh. Trump issued pardons and commutations to every defendant charged and convicted in connection to the breach on the U.S. Capitol, including those who incited violence.

This past Jan. 6, House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to put up a plaque honoring law enforcement officers who did their duty five years ago. On March 7, before dawn, Capitol workers finally installed the plaque.

Even among the left, it seems that the fifth anniversary of the insurrection attempt came and went without much fanfare. Did we all collectively forget that this happened?

Surely Republican voters know what’s a bridge too far. Johnson and the other Jan. 6 participants running for office will most likely lose come Election Day – and rightfully so.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social

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