Officer who protected the US Capitol on January 6 announces run for Congress

A former US Capitol police officer is now running to join the ranks of those elected officials who he protected from a riotous mob of former president Donald Trump’s supporters on January 6.

Harry Dunn, a former college football player who recently retired from the US Capitol Police after nearly two decades as an officer, was one of the key voices that a House of Representatives panel heard in its investigation of the January 6 attack in 2021.

In a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mr Dunn announced that he would be running in Maryland’s third district, where incumbent Democrat John Sarbanes recently announced that he would not stand for re-election this year.

“I feel like I have run my race with the Capitol police in the last 15-plus years of public service in that capacity. So here, right now, I’m here to announce my candidacy for Congress in Maryland’s third district,” he said.

Continuing, he asked: “What better way than to continue fighting for the people of Maryland, for the people of the United States, and to continue to defend democracy?”

Mr Dunn said that the January 6 attack “exposed how weak and fragile” American democracy truly is, and, citing Mr Trump’s vow to be a “dictator” on his first day in office if returned to the White House, warned that the US is “one election away from the extinction of democracy as we know it”.

“I’m here to announce my candidacy to fight back and be able to push back against the people in Congress right now that I spent the last 15 years of my life protecting,” he said. “I want to serve as their equal, as their colleague. I want a voice at the table. I’m ready for that challenge.”

The law enforcement officer turned House candidate is a native of Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he graduated from Surrattsville High School before attending James Madison University.

According to his campaign website, he joined the Capitol Police in 2008 and served in a unit responsible for providing security at the perimeter of the Capitol grounds. He was also a member of the department’s Crisis Negotiation Team with responsibility for responding to hostage situations.

Last year, he was one of the police officers whom President Joe Biden presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honour.