A Cooke County man who faces charges he assaulted officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol has announced he's running for Texas House of Representatives.
Mark Middleton and his wife Jalise, of Forestburg, were arrested by the FBI in April.
Images from police body cameras showed the couple assaulting officers with their hands, according to a criminal complaint.
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When an officer yelled for people to "get back," Mark Middleton responded by saying, "F*** you," the complaint said.
"We helped push down the barriers," he wrote on a Facebook post which was later deleted, the FBI said. "We are on the front lines."
Jalise Middleton also allegedly posted comments soon after the riot.
“We fought the cops to get in the Capital (sic) and got pepper-sprayed and beat but by gosh the patriots got in!” she wrote, according to the complaint.
Middleton is running for Texas House District 68, a sprawling district covering mostly rural parts of North Texas.
Capitol Riot
The incumbent is Jacksboro attorney David Spiller, a Republican who is seeking re-election in the March primary.
Middleton is also running as a Republican in the heavily conservative district.
Reached by phone, Spiller sidestepped questions about Middleton entering the race.
"I don't have any comment on that," Spiller said. "He's entitled to run and that's fine."
Middleton was a precinct chair for the Cooke County Republican Party until he announced his candidacy recently, said Cooke County Republican Chairman Chris McNamara.
Asked about Middleton running for public office while charged with a federal felony, McNamara said, "If the charges are true, if that's what really happened, I don't think that's probably a good fit."
Middleton declined to comment.
On his campaign website, Middleton doesn't mention the insurrection but suggests Texas consider seceding.
"To the extent the Union can be saved we should work to that end," he wrote. "However it is past time Texans start seriously exploring our exit from the union."
