Son of Oath Keepers’ leader jailed for Jan 6 riot announces he’s running for office as a Democrat

The son of a convicted seditionist and right-wing gang leader is going to be running for office — as a Democrat.

Dakota Adams, the son of Oath Keepers "militia" founder Stewart Rhodes, will run as a Democrat in Montana.

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his involvement in the Capitol riot.

Mr Adams, 27, does not share his father's violent, anti-democratic views.

“I decided that I’m going to double down on betting on the electoral process,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

He previously said that life under his father's rule was abusive and that it nearly destroyed his family. Mr Adams called Rhodes a lazy grifter who peddled anti-government paranoia in the wake of Barack Obama's 2008 election.

“Basically until I’m an adult it’s all one continuous gray time of survival and moving boxes,” Mr Adams said. “We lived in extreme isolation in one particular cultural bubble in increasingly paranoid and militant right-wing political spheres everywhere we moved in the country, until eventually we ended up in Montana.”

In 2018, Mr Adams' mother, Tasha, divorced Rhodes. The family fled from the gang leader.

Three years later, Rhodes would go on to use his Oath Keepers to attack the US Capitol as part of the Capitol riot. He was arrested and convicted on seditious conspiracy charges. He is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence.

His father's involvement in the violent, anti-democratic attack on the US Capitol has, in part, driven Mr Adams’ decision to pursue a position as a lawmaker.

“It served as a sobering wake-up call in terms of how much danger we are truly in and how the Republican Party enabled a president to become an active danger to this republic,” Mr Adams said. “I was forced to