Brandon Straka (1976-) was an American far-right political activist from New York City and the founder of the "WalkAway" campaign to encourage liberals to leave the Democratic Party, starting with the 2018 midterms. He later became a leader of the "Stop the Steal" movement, and he participated in the 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt, during which he encouraged fellow insurrectionists to steal a policeman's shield. He was arrested in Omaha, Nebraska on 25 January 2021.
Biography
Brandon Straka was born in rural Nebraska, and he moved to Manhattan, New York City after high school to pursue an acting career and worked as a hairstylist before becoming a political activist. Straka fell into alcoholism and drug abuse after failing to find acting work, but he recovered after going sober in 2015, upon which he began to drift towards conservatism due to his belief that victimhood was self-imposed. He finally became a conservative after a confrontation with a Hispanic homeless man who accused him of "white privilege", and, when Straka shared the encounter on social media, he was criticized by several progressive friends who believed that the fault lay with him. Straka - who identified as a "Manhattan-based, gay ex-liberal", and who had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 - became a vocal opponent of liberalism and an advocate of Trumpism. He founded the Walkaway Campaign PAC on 26 May 2018 and holding rallies in support of Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election; the formation of his PAC was seen as "astroturfing", as the movement never attracted more than 300 people to its rallies, and it is doubtful that any significant number of them were genuine liberal converts to Trumpist conservatism (his PAC was also bankrolled by Alex Jones). Straka amassed a Twitter following of 70,000 and became a frequent Fox News contributor, appearing on Judge Jeanine Pirro's show. After Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election, Straka took part in the far-right "Stop the Steal" campaign to invalidate the election results. He later encouraged participation in the 2021 United States coup d'etat attempt, and he personally took part in the storming of the Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January 2021 and encouraged other insurrectionists to take a shield from a police officer. On 25 January 2021, he was arrested in Omaha, Nebraska an faced three charges in relation to the storming of the Capitol.