Son of Oath Keepers militia leader explains why he’s running for office as a Democrat: ‘I saw the bullsh*t’

Dakota Adams spent many years unlearning the lessons his father taught him. Growing up under the watchful eye of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the largest far-Right militia in the United States, meant being ready for the government to break down his door at any moment.

Now, in a development that would no doubt infuriate his imprisoned dad, the 27-year-old is running for office as a Democrat in deep-red Montana. He hopes his experience escaping that conspiracy-filled world might help others break out of their own echo chambers — the kind that has ensured Republican rule there for generations.

“Not all of it is going to be applicable for talking to the average person who has been the target of decades of misinformation by the likes of Fox News, but I think there is some useful insight to be gleaned from how I worked my way out,” he toldThe Independent.

“It gives me, at the very least, an understanding of where these people are coming from.”

Adams, one of six siblings, was already estranged from his father when Rhodes became America’s most infamous seditionist. The man Adams now only refers to by his first name was sentenced to 18 years in jail for his role in the Capitol attack, in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers militia

“The last time I spoke to Stewart was seeing him hand over boxes of freeze-dried survivalists food as in-kind payment for one of his many missed child support payments,” Adam said, describing his father as a “self-interested shapeshifter with no true belief.”

Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers militia in 2009, a year after Barack Obama was elected the first Black president of the United States. The group aimed to recruit former military, law