| UNFAIR PARK | Running Riot Mark Middleton is accused of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Now, he’s running for Texas state House. BY PATRICK STRICKLAND Spencer Platt/Getty Images Trump supporters gather outside the U.S. Capitol following a “Stop the Steal” rally on January 06, 2021 . paign. On the shore of Lewisville Lake, it’s a spot where people can grab a cold beer and a greasy burger after a long day on the water. But on the night of Jan. 7, disgruntled Re- publicans from around North Texas filled the banquet room. Behind the podium at the head of the A room, red, white and blue balloons neatly framed a campaign sign for Isaac Smith, who’s running for U.S. Congress on the promise to, as his placards say, drain the swamp. A bartender poured drinks in the back. A few people picked at the buffet. White cloths dressed the tables. Several in the crowd were suited up in slick dresses or coats, and a few had dressed more casually, in cowboy hats and overalls. By the time the event started, the seats were all taken, leav- ing only standing room for latecomers. Some 50 people had shown up to hear Smith and a handful of aspiring politicians, including a t first glance, Sneaky Pete’s wouldn’t strike you as the kind of place where someone vying for your vote would pitch their political cam- state House candidate named Mark Middle- ton. When Middleton’s turn to take the po- dium came, he only briefly touched on the policies he had to offer voters in Texas House District 68, a slice of the state that spans some 300 miles east to west and 200 north to south. Shaped like a mangled L with an extra appendage, the district hugs the Texas-Oklahoma border in some areas and nearly stretches all the way down into the northern tip of Hill Country. Middleton said the Texas Republican Party, despite re- cently convening the most conservative leg- islative session on the books, hadn’t updated its program in two decades. His incumbent opponent, GOP state Rep. David Spiller, and the rest of the party brass, he argued, were all RINOs, or “Republicans in Name Only.” That’s why the “big-money donors” hadn’t pitched in for Middleton’s campaign or others like it: He had only $500 in his war chest. “I am a true conservative,” he said. “I am a true patriot.” There were less than two months left un- til the primary elections, scheduled for March 1, but the 52-year-old Cooke County resident only had a few minutes at the po- dium. He didn’t have spare much time on his campaign. Dressed in a charcoal blazer and blue jeans but no tie, he got down to the topic everyone likely wanted to hear about. Middleton is one of dozens of Capitol riot defendants around the country who had launched campaigns for political office. He had joined hundreds of people who attacked the U.S. Capitol. The insurrection prompted condemnations nationwide, including from Republican Party, but a year later, many con- servatives saw the rioters as heroes. He and his wife, Jalise, had traveled to Washington and joined the rally-turned- riot, when supporters of then President Donald Trump tried to stop the certification of November 2020 presidential election. The day had started with a fiery speech by Trump and ended with hundreds of Trump supporters violently attacking police, raid- ing and rampaging through the U.S. Capitol. As far as electoral pitches go, Middleton’s purported role in the riot was an unconven- tional one: Among other crimes, the Middle- tons stood accused of assaulting police officers. But he had an explanation handy, albeit one that paints a much different pic- ture than the U.S. Department of Justice’s case against him. The way he told it, he and his wife had been amicably chatting with Capitol police before things went south. Nothing much was happening, he claimed, when D.C. Metropolitan Police attacked and “began clubbing” the couple from behind. “When we turned around to defend our- selves from the hits, they were trying to grab us and everything else,” he explained, “and then they pepper-sprayed us while they’re clubbing us.” Other Capitol protesters pulled the Middletons away from the front- line, he said, and gave them Visine to help al- leviate their burning eyes. “And that constituted assaulting police officers, ac- cording to the FBI,” he said. According to Middleton’s version, he and his wife were model citizens in Cooke County, people known for their longstand- ing commitment to volunteer work in their community. In fact, Middleton had “even dressed in drag” as part of fund- >> p4 13 dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014
