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The far-right protest group Patriot Prayer has embraced a recruitment strategy to bring out-of-town belligerents to Portland for another so-called campaign event planned for Aug. 4.
On the Facebook event advertising a "Gibson for Senate Freedom March," people from as far as Arizona, Nevada, Southern California and even the East Coast have voiced a desire to attend the event.
Alex Jones, the radio host who runs the conspiracy website Infowars, told Gibson he "might even come" to the Aug. 4 event during an interview on his radio program.
A crowd-funding effort led by Salt Lake City-based far-right darling Haley Adams has raised more than $2,800 to bring Patriot Prayer supporters to Portland.
Led by Senate candidate Joey Gibson, many Patriot Prayer demonstrations have devolved into violence as the group attracts a growing number of alt-right figures and members of the Proud Boys fraternity, who clash with Portland antifascists. On June 30, one of Gibson's campaign events ended in the most violent riot the city has seen in more than a year of street clashes.
Gibson has been holding events in Portland despite campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat in Washington. He has not filed any campaign finance disclosures with the Federal Elections Commission, which Congressional candidates are required to do once they raise or spend more than $5,000.
The violence at Patriot Prayer events has been spilling over into daily life across the Northwest. Two regular rally attendees, Donovon Flippo and Tusitala "Tiny" Toese, have been involved in at least two reported assaults on people they allegedly attacked on the street.
In a feature about the growing reach of the Proud Boys in the Pacific Northwest, The Seattle Times reported an incident in Vancouver, Wash. where Toese and Flippo drove around a shopping center in a pickup truck sporting a confederate flag emblazoned with President Donald Trump's face. A black teenager shouted an obscenity about Trump as they drove by. The two men chased the teen and Toese flung him to the ground in an altercation caught on video by the boy's friend.
Flippo and Toese, who self-identify as members of the Proud Boys, allegedly attacked a man in Portland after he yelled at their pickup as the pair drove by shouting "Support Trump, build the wall."
Both men were arrested in Portland on June 30 and released from the Multnomah County jail the same evening. The Multnomah County District Attorney is still reviewing evidence in the case, but has thus far declined to file charges.