Symbolic figure of the Capitol storm
“Buffalo Man” wants to run in elections for the US Congress
November 13, 2023, 8:06 p.m
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At the beginning of 2021, fanatical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. Among them is a conspiracy believer who becomes known as the “Buffalo Man.” After serving his sentence, he wants to go to the Capitol again next year – but this time through democratic means.
Jacob Chansley, who became known as the “QAnon shaman” with his buffalo horn fur hat during the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, wants to run for the US Congress. Chansley filed a letter of intent to run for the Libertarian Party in the state of Arizona. The next congressional elections will take place in around a year, on November 5, 2024, parallel to the presidential election.
Chansley stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 together with other supporters of the elected President Donald Trump. Images of Chansley with a bare torso covered in tattoos with motifs from Norse mythology, a painted face, a fur hat with buffalo horns and a spear with a US flag went around the world. He was nicknamed the “Buffalo Man” or “Horn Man” by the media. The self-proclaimed “shaman” and follower of the QAnon conspiracy ideology became one of the most well-known Capitol attackers – and a face of the Jan. 6 violence.
Chansley later expressed his disappointment with Trump several times. He once said in a statement that he had “dropped many peaceful people” and was not honorable. In November 2021 he was sentenced to almost three and a half years in prison for the storming of the Capitol. But he was released early in the spring. His lawyer had argued that the man, who is in his mid-thirties, had long-standing mental health problems, including transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and an anxiety disorder. Chansley is also said to have renounced the “QAnon” myth.
QAnon supporters believe, for example, that a global, satanic elite kidnaps, tortures, abuses and murders children in order to obtain a rejuvenation serum from the blood. She is also said to be planning to turn the USA into a dictatorship. The core of the conspiracy ideology is the alleged existence of an anonymous insider in the highest political circles who goes by the name “Q”. In the narrative, Trump appears as a savior who fights the elite.