Patriot Party organizer says Trump's support would give them a 'boost'
by BROOKE CONRAD, Sinclair Broadcast Group Thursday, January 21st 2021 AA
Organizers for the Patriot Party, who have been meeting for about a year with political action committees registered in five states, were surprised when they heard former President Trump might start a political party by the same name. (Photo by Pete Marovich - Pool/Getty Images)
HUNT VALLEY, Md. (SBG) — Organizers for the Patriot Party, who have been meeting for about a year with political action committees registered in five states, were surprised when they heard former President Trump might start a political party by the same name. Search traffic for the Patriot Party shot up in recent days, following the Wall Street Journal’s report that Trump has discussed starting a new "Patriot Party." Will Johnson, who serves as Idaho party chair and contributes to the party's national efforts, says Trump has not contacted his group, but that Trump's involvement definitely "would give us a boost." The party has around 40 leaders nationwide and is still in the early stages of organizing. The Arizona party garnered approximately 7,000 signatures through its website, as part of the process for earning a spot on the state ballot. Mindy Robinson, who lost her 2020 Republican primary bid for Nevada’s third congressional district, plans to run as a Patriot Party candidate in 2022, Johnson said. Johnson doesn't think the party will be nationally recognized until 2024 — if the state campaigns are successful. Party organizers have received blowback for their efforts, suggesting they'd siphon off too many Republicans and would damage right-wing candidates' chances at winning elections. Johnson said he’s not concerned about that. He’s mainly focused on persuading the 33% of eligible voters who didn’t cast a ballot this year. “I think the reason they don’t vote is they feel like they don’t know anyone who is representing them,” Johnson said. “You know, Joe Auto Shop Guy, or a local firearm or police officer. I don’t think they think either party is representing the people anymore.” Until recently, the party had 38 state Twitter accounts, in addition to national accounts, the majority of which were suspended in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Several other conservative social media accounts were also suspended. Johnson said the party's national account had garnered around 100,000 followers, and several of the state accounts were garnering around 1,000 followers a day. "It really hurt our momentum,” he said. A Twitter account purporting to belong to the Patriot Party, which started in December, has gained around 100,000 followers. Johnson said that account has no connection to his group and noted that it has been marketing T-shirts on the page using his party's logo. He questioned why that account was allowed to remain online. Johnson added that Facebook also started taking down Patriot Party accounts on Jan. 15. He said Facebook had cited “inciting violence" as its reason for suspension. “Just by having an account on Facebook and having a conservative voice in this nation, and wanting to start our own party,” Johnson said. “I can tell you that there are no violent inclinations in anyone that represents anybody from this party.” Sinclair has reached out to Twitter and Facebook for response. They also had their Parler account removed after Amazon Web Services, Google, and Apple de-platformed the social media company, saying that Parler had failed to appropriately monitor violent threats. Johnson said the party has moved over to Gab and other platforms.