Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes may be swearing some new oaths in his Maryland prison cell after learning his oldest son will be running for office as a Democrat.
Dakota Adams is selling her share of the family’s rifles, body armor and tactical gear to fund her run for the Montana House of Representatives.
And the 27-year-old is abandoning other aspects of the “toxic childhood” that culminated in the imprisonment of his estranged father for his role in the January 6 storming of Congress.
Dressed in leather gear and black eyeliner, the volunteer firefighter said he finally stepped out of his domineering father’s shadow and is “interacting with people as my genuine self.”
“As a child I spent so much time conforming to a small character to enhance my father’s political ambitions and image that I refused to do it again for any reason,” he said.
Dakota Adams, 27, said the Jan. 6 attack fueled her decision to run for office and “served as a sobering wake-up call in terms of the danger we truly find ourselves in.”
His father, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, is turning 18 after being convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
Rhodes became one of the most famous faces of the far right, but his son said his home life was one of extreme isolation in increasingly paranoid and militant right-wing political spheres.
Adams and his five siblings suffered a childhood of “extreme isolation” as they moved from house to house to escape creditors, the law, and the threat of an impending apocalypse.
“Basically, until I’m an adult it’s all a continuous gray time of survival and moving boxes,” he said.
“We lived in extreme isolation in a particular cultural bubble in increasingly paranoid and militant right-wing political spheres everywhere we moved in the country, until we finally ended up in Montana.”
Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 and became one of the far-right’s best-known figures, leading a series of high-profile clashes with federal and local officials.
But at home, his children learned little from their “homeschooling” other than the history of the American Revolution, leaving Adams functionally innumerable until he taught himself his multiplication tables at age 19.
Two years ago, Adams and his two older sisters He spoke of the extreme paranoia that reigned in his family and how they had to protect what they said to the only people they knew: his father’s militant friends.
Today Adams works in construction and works as a volunteer firefighter while trying to catch up on his college education.
He believes his experience gives him personal insight into what motivates his opponents.
And he insists he won’t abandon black eyeliner and nail polish for his election bid: “As a child I spent so much time adapting to a small character to enhance my father’s political ambitions and image that I refused to do it anymore.” “. for some reason’
“That was our only social circle,” Adams said, “and we had to be on guard because any small talk or violation of operational security could harm our family.”
‘So we couldn’t talk about our lives, nor let unnecessary information leak out even to people within the movement.
‘It didn’t affect our lives: it warped them. Our lives passed in the respite left by the Oath Keepers.
“I was completely obsessed with Stewart’s approval of me, whether I was good enough, and my responsibility to help my family get through the apocalypse.
“Then I did a 180 degree turn and started plotting against him.”
The misery finally ended when her mother Tasha gathered her children and fled one morning in 2018.
“We told him we were going to the corner store and he asked us to buy a steak,” Adams said.
“He didn’t think it was strange for me to pick up my mom’s dog, or for us to put all our stuff in the car and sneak out of it.
‘We were going out early in the morning before he woke up. But he woke up at 4 in the morning and was in mania all day.
Rhodes’ ex-wife, Tasha (left), escaped with Adams and his five siblings in 2018. Two years ago, Adams’ sister, Sequoia (right), spoke alongside her brother about their childhood, telling an interviewer that Rhodes “thought he was going to be the new guy.” founding father
“So we handed him our stuff in a duffle bag while he walked back and forth around the one-room cabin.”
He may have lost his family, but Rhodes’ star continued to rise in far-right circles as civil unrest under President Trump culminated in the events of January 6.
Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and tampering with evidence after helping to organize the attack and sentenced to 18 years.
Four days after the attack, he was recorded saying at a meeting that his “only regret” was that they didn’t bring rifles.
“We should have brought rifles, we could have fixed it right then and there,” he said.
“I would hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost.”
Adams says it was the attack on the Capitol that helped persuade him to run for office.
“It served as a sobering wake-up call in terms of how much danger we really are in and how the Republican Party allowed a president to become an active danger to this republic,” he added.
“I was forced to reevaluate many beliefs and confront difficult questions about what I really stood for.”
He faces an uphill battle in deep red Lincoln County, where Democrats peaked at 36 percent in 2016.
But he believes he has a personal view of what motivates his opponents, even if he may seem like an “honest weirdo.”
“I’m not starting off by attacking anyone for what they believe,” he said.
“Because of how I grew up, I understand a lot of the lexicon.”
“I feel like being an honest weirdo is a lot better for a lot of people than being a Spirit Halloween cowboy when you ask for their vote.”
Today he works in construction while juggling college classes and therapy sessions to address the “long-term effects of living in a toxic or dysfunctional home.”
Rhodes is an Army veteran and Yale Law School graduate who later worked as a staffer for Republican Congressman Ron Paul.
Twelve Oath Keepers Charged with Seditious Conspiracy Over Jan. 6 Attack
“Sometimes it seems very unreal, because I have a normal life 95 percent of the time,” he said.
And then, five percent of the time, my personal life is relevant to a national news story.
‘The disconnection feels incredibly strange.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be fully at the level I would have been in life if I had a semi-normal childhood.”
But he insists he has left his father’s extremism behind and will seek change through consent.
“I have decided that I am going to redouble my bets on the electoral process,” he added.
‘No matter what happens, I will try again. “I think this will be something that will last a lifetime.”