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The #WalkAway Campaign is a true grassroots movement, founded by former liberal, Brandon Straka on May 26th, 2018. The #WalkAway Campaign encourages and supports those on the Left to walk away from the divisive tenets endorsed and mandated by the Democratic Party of today. Sepp Straka – Josh Teater. Kyoung-Hoon Lee – Kyle Stanley. Matthew NeSmith – Chase Seiffert. Wyndham Clark – Erik van Rooyen. Kevin Stadler – Johnson Wagner. Peter Malnati – Chris Baker. Jhonattan Vegas – Andres Romero. Cameron Percy – Greg Chalmers. Rafael Campos – Mark Anderson. Michael Gligic – Vincent Whaley.

The founder of a pro-Trump social media campaign that encouraged longtime Democrats to leave their party has been charged in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

A federal charging document dated Jan. 20 charged Brandon Straka, originator of the 'Walk Away' campaign, with disorderly conduct, knowingly entering and remaining on restricted grounds and impeding police during civil disorder.

Straka, according to the charging document, tweeted a 58-minute video of himself on Jan. 7 saying he had made his way through the crowd that breached the Capitol the day before and saw 'nothing being broken' and 'nobody committing any acts of violence.'

'My review of Straka's Twitter account on January 11, did not find video or any other posts from January 6, 2021 relating directly to Straka's actions at the U.S. Capitol,' the document states. 'However, the FBI received tips from the public with screenshots of Straka's Twitter activity from January 6, 2021.'

The screenshots in question include Straka describing himself as 'quite close to entering [the Capitol] myself during the breach' and another where he tweets, 'I missed the part where it was agreed this would be a revolution of ice cream cones & hair-braiding parties to take our government back from lying, cheating globally interested swamp parasites. My bad.'

The document states that the FBI received a tip from a relative of Straka's that they had seen a since-deleted video of him saying he was 'on the cusp' of entering the building and repeats, 'We're going in.'

The witness later sent the agent who wrote the document a link to an eight-minute video depicting Straka pushing forward with the crowd and 'appear[ing] to get within several feet of the entrance to the U.S. Capitol.'

He says of a police officer holding a shield, 'Take it away from him.' The crowd eventually successfully takes the shield from the officer, who is pulled deeper into the crowd attempting to reclaim it before he successfully takes it back.

In addition to his association with the Walk Away campaign, Straka was removed from an American Airlines flight in June for refusing to wear a mask, an incident filmed by New York Times reporter Astead Herndon.

The Hill has reached out Straka for comment.

The WalkAway campaign, also styled #WalkAway, is a social-media campaign that was launched ahead of the United States 2018 mid-term elections by Brandon Straka, a hairstylist from New York City.^[2] The campaign encourages liberals to leave the Democratic Party.^[2][3]

In 2021, Straka was charged for participating in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.^[4] Following this, the group's Facebook page was closed for violations of the site's terms of service.^[5]

Organization[edit]

The campaign is set up as a foundation and a PAC. The foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) organization defined as a Alliance/Advocacy Organizations within the Public, Society Benefit - Multipurpose and Other category. The IRS ruling year for tax exemption was 2019.^[6] While no IRS annual return is on file for 2019, the 2018 filing shows contributions of $97,950 with officers reported as Brandon Straka, chairman; Maria Albanese, director, and Tracy Diaz, director.^[7] As of October 28, 2020, the foundation was involved in an online fundraising campaign through classy.org which had raised nearly $125,000.^[8] The PAC is set up as Walkaway Campaign PAC and shows receipts of $29,000 through the 2020 cycle. The FEC registration is C00718197 and the treasurer of the PAC is indicated as Dan Backer.^[9]

Political activities[edit]

In the runup to the 2020 United States presidential election, the WalkAway campaign held rallies and marches in various cities, an effort to get people to vote for President Donald Trump. In August 2020, the WalkAway campaign held a rally in West Hollywood, California. Nearly 300 demonstrators attended, including Youtuber Joy Villa. Many held flags and signs supportive of Trump and critical of the Democratic Party.^[10] On September 5, the campaign held a rally in Dallas, Texas, during which a Black Lives Matter counter-protester was arrested on at least ten outstanding warrants.^[11] On October 3, 2020, Straka held a rally in Washington, D.C.^[12]

Analysis and activities[edit]

It is not clear to what extent WalkAway is an example of astroturfing rather than a genuine grassroots movement. Straka has stated that WalkAway does not receive major donations and that 'everything is grassroots support from Americans who send us $5 or $100.'^[13] As of May 2020, the Center for Responsive Politics reported that of the $20,104 donated to WalkAway in 2020, $7,521 were contributed by nine large ($200 or more) donors, of which Straka is one.^{[14][better source needed]} Soon after its founding in 2018, WalkAway received a $10,000 donation from Alex Jones and InfoWars.^[15][2][16]

David A. Love of CNN condemned the campaign as 'pure propaganda [and] a psychological operation.'^[17] The website Hamilton 68, which tracks Russia's interference on U.S. elections, reported that WalkAway was 'connected to Kremlin-linked Russian bots to manipulate voters into thinking the movement was more popular and active that it actually was.'^[13]

Abby Ohlheiser of The Washington Post claimed that '[t]here’s little actual evidence to suggest that #WalkAway represents a mass conversion of millions – or even thousands – of Democrats' and contrasted the broad appeal of true viral videos with the 'Conservative Internet viral' nature of the WalkAway video.^[18]ThinkProgress characterized the WalkAway campaign as 'a grifting operation,' noting efforts by the organizers to sell dinner packages priced in the hundreds of dollars to march attendees.^[19]

Slate journalist Mark Joseph Stern accused Straka of presenting royalty-free stock images from Shutterstock and claiming they were of people who had left the Democratic Party,^[20] though Straka has denied that any such material originated from the WalkAway campaign. Fact-checking website Snopes stated that it could not determine whether this use of stock images had originated from campaign organizers.^[21]

Storming the capitol[edit]

Brandon Straka Facebook

Straka attended the 2021 storming of the United States capitol and spoke to crowds on Tuesday, January 5 where he referred to the audience as “patriots” and referred repeatedly to a “revolution.” He also told the attendees to “fight back” and added, “We are sending a message to the Democrats, we are not going away, you’ve got a problem!”^[22][23]

The next day Wednesday, January 6, he urged protestors to take away a police officer’s shield shouting “Take it away from him,” Straka allegedly yelled. “Take it! Take it!” Later as others tried to charge through the entrance to the Capitol, the activist shouted: “Go! Go!”^[23]

Brandon Staka New Walk Away Video

On January 8, 2021, Facebook closed the WalkAway group page, which had more than half a million followers at the time. The page was replaced with a message from Facebook saying the page had violated its terms of use.^[5] The shutdown came in the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, when Facebook and other social media platforms increased their enforcement of terms of service that ban the incitement of violence.^[24] Facebook claimed the page violated a policy on content that was, 'hateful, threatening, or obscene'.^[25]

In January 2021, Straka was charged with 'interfering with police during a civil disorder' and unlawful entry into a restricted building, as well as disorderly conduct.^[4]

See also[edit]

Brandon Straka Wikipedia

References[edit]

1. ^'About'. #WalkAway Campaign. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
2. ^ ^abcFitSimons, Tim (August 21, 2018). 'Meet Brandon Straka, a gay former liberal encouraging others to #WalkAway from Democrats'. NBC News. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
3. ^Richardson, Davis (September 13, 2018). '#WalkAway Founder Is Latest to Spread 'Facebook Ban' Disinformation'. observer.com. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
4. ^ ^abGerstein, Josh (January 25, 2021). 'Stop the Steal organizer charged in Capitol riot'. Politico. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
5. ^ ^abOsborne, Duncan. 'Social Media Platforms Run Away from #WalkAway Campaign – Gay City News'. www.gaycitynews.com. Retrieved April 19, 2021.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
6. ^'Walkaway Foundation'. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
7. ^'Walkaway Foundation - NYS Attorney General - Charities'. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
8. ^'Walkaway Foundation- Donate Now'. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
9. ^'Walkaway Campaign PAC - OpenSecrets'. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
10. ^Scott, Henry E. (August 8, 2020). 'Nearly 300 #WalkAway Demonstrators Rally in West Hollywood to Support Trump'. WEHOville. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
11. ^'Activist Dominique Alexander, others detained following incident at Dallas WalkAway Campaign rally'. WFAA. September 5, 2020.
12. ^Satterfield, Kolbie (October 3, 2020). 'Political protests and rallies fill DC streets 1 month before election'. WUSA9.
13. ^ ^abSuggs, Ernie (September 17, 2019). '#Walkaway movement to hold Atlanta event amid questions about support'. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
14. ^'Walkaway Campaign PAC Summary | OpenSecrets'. www.opensecrets.org. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
15. ^Isaacs, Deanna (July 10, 2019). 'A dramatic confrontation between the right-wing political group #WalkAway and Theater Wit ends up on YouTube'. The Chicago Reader.
16. ^'Hi everyone, I'm Brandon Straka, founder of #WalkAway Campaign, a true grassroots movement...' Retrieved August 20, 2020.
17. ^Love, David A. 'Russian bots are using #WalkAway to try to wound Dems in midterms'. CNN. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
18. ^Ohlheiser, Abby (July 2, 2018). 'Analysis | The #WalkAway meme is what happens when everything is viral and nothing matters'. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
19. ^Michel, Casey (October 16, 2018). 'Pro-Trump #WalkAway March has all the signs of a grifting operation'. ThinkProgress.
20. ^'These people who 'walked away from the Democrats' are stock-photo models'. Fast Company. July 24, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
21. ^'FACT CHECK: Did the #WalkAway Campaign Use Stock Photographs for People It Claimed Left the Democratic Party?'. Snopes.com. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
22. ^'MAGA influencer Brandon Straka arrested in connection with Capitol assault'. NBC News. Retrieved April 19, 2021.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
23. ^ ^abJOSH GERSTEIN (January 25, 2021). 'Stop the Steal organizer charged in Capitol riot'. politico.com.
24. ^Fischer, Ashley Gold,Sara. 'Facebook, Twitter and the long march toward banning Trump'. Axios. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
25. ^'Anti-Democrat WalkAway Campaign banished from Facebook'. Fox News.