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'QAnon Shaman' Plans to Run for Congress. Here's What He Had to Say About It.

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  November 14, 2023 7:00 AM

Jacob Chansley, better known as the QAnon Shaman from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, is planning to run for Congress as a Libertarian. 

The 35-year-old filed a candidate statement of interest last week for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District seat. The move came after Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko announced that she will not seek reelection when her term ends in January 2025.

Chansley, the bearded, shirtless man wearing a furry headdress with horns on Jan. 6, was sentenced in November 2021 to 41 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a single felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding. 

He was released after about 27 months and transferred to a halfway house in Phoenix.

According to The Associated Press, felons are not prohibited under the Constitution from holding federal office. 

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In an interview with Newsmax, Chansley vowed to represent the American people “the way they deserve to be represented.”

“You could choose to look at me as a felon. I’ve heard people call me a traitor that’s a threat to democracy. Or you could choose to look at me as I am a person that was maligned and skewered by a corrupt system — as so many hundreds of thousands of people have been in the United States, as so many Jan. 6ers have been in the United States, and as Donald Trump has been in the United States of America,” he said. 

"The DOJ can call anybody or can convict anybody on anything," Chansley added. "I believe it was Clarence Thomas that said the average American citizen breaks six federal laws each day. So our list of rules for the government is a page or two. It's called the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, but their list of rules for us are thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of pages at this point – hence why the average American citizen breaks six federal laws a day.

"That's a problem," he continued. "And, so, in my opinion, if the American people are looking for change, then I guarantee you they're not going to find it in the establishment. They're not going to find it in any of the people that are currently in Congress because those people are banking on keeping the status quo. That's how they keep their jobs. These people want careers in D.C. They don't want to make change."