Armed statehouse protests set tone for U.S. Capitol insurgents

BOISE, Idaho — When President Trump-supporting insurrectionists on Wednesday stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the presidential election, the nation was shocked. But not unwarned.

A series of dress rehearsals of sorts have played out in a handful of statehouses across the country in recent months. In May, armed protesters forced their way into the Michigan Statehouse to object to pandemic-related lockdowns.

In August, self-styled “patriots”, anti-vaccination groups and other protesters temporarily derailed a special legislative session in Idaho that was called to address pandemic-related election issues. Less than three weeks ago, crowds forced their way into the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon, to protest the building’s closure to the public during a special legislative session on coronavirus measures.

“There’s a direct relationship between the growing paramilitary activity in the state Capitols, for sure, and what’s happening in D.C.,” said Joe Lowndes, a political science professor at the University of Oregon who researches race, conservatism and social movements in politics. “They have the same kind of organizations and people involved.”

In other words, the states — once called the “laboratories of democracy” by Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis — have become training grounds for violent dissent. There are concerns that the unrest could continue, or get worse, as legislatures across the country return for sessions this month.

“It’s that idea of the takeover as an act, partly as a symbolic act and partly as an act of direct political action,” Lowndes said.

The Idaho Statehouse, with its classic sandstone and marble construction and soaring, eagle-topped dome, is one of a handful in the country designed to evoke the architecture of the U.S. Capitol. In August, angry protesters led by anti-vaccination groups and an anti-government organization started by Ammon Bundy called “People’s Rights” disrupted a special legislative session in part because they opposed a proposed law meant to shield businesses from liability related to the coronavirus.

The protesters forced their way past police and into an Idaho House gallery with limited seating because of the pandemic. The window of a glass door was shattered as the crowd shoved and pushed its way through the entry. Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke, seeking to avoid violence, then gave the order to allow the protesters inside.

The next day, there were more disruptions. Shouting attendees prompted lawmakers to stall a hearing and Bundy was arrested and wheeled out of the building in an office chair.

In a Thursday morning phone interview with The Associated Press, Bundy acknowledged that his protests in Idaho may have inspired some protesters in Washington, D.C. Bundy made international headlines in 2016 when he and his supporters stormed the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in rural Oregon and staged a 41-day armed occupation in support of ranchers who’d been arrested for arson on federal grazing land.

“All over the states, all over the country, we have a situation where government officials think they can go behind closed doors and make decisions for the people where the people are not able to witness it,” Bundy said. “Maybe they needed a reminder by us, but this is something that’s traditional in our country that our founders did — reasserting the premise that the people are the ones who are sovereign.”