The man who was famously photographed carrying a lectern out of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the January 6 Capitol riot has entered a local political race in Florida.
Adam Johnson, 41 — widely dubbed “The Lectern Guy” after the viral image of him smiling and waving while holding the stand — filed paperwork Tuesday to run as a Republican for an at-large county commission seat in Manatee County, south of Tampa. He filed on the fifth anniversary of January 6, a timing he acknowledged was intentional.
In an interview with WWSB, Johnson said filing on the anniversary was “definitely good for getting the buzz out there.”
Johnson was arrested in 2021 and charged with entering or remaining in a restricted building in connection with January 6. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 75 days in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and complete 200 hours of community service.
During his sentencing, Johnson told U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton that taking Pelosi’s lectern and posing for photos with it was a “very stupid idea.” Since then, he has minimized what happened, describing it this way: “I walked into a building, I took a picture with a piece of furniture and I left.”
In the WWSB interview, he compared the misdemeanor he was convicted of to jaywalking.
“I think I exercised my First Amendment right to speak and protest,” he added.
Johnson’s campaign website emphasizes that he is a father of five and a small business owner. It says he is running because he is “Tired of watching MAGA principles get ignored at the local level,” and promises to “fix Manatee fast” while “root[ing] out the corruption that’s been costing you money and destroying our quality of life.”
Johnson has said he opposes high property taxes and overdevelopment in Manatee County, arguing that local leaders are wasting money.
In March, he filed a lawsuit against the county and six commissioners, claiming they should have pursued attorney’s fees in a separate case after a plaintiff dropped a lawsuit against the county. Manatee County has called Johnson’s lawsuit “completely meritless and unsupported by law.”
Johnson is not the only January 6 defendant to seek public office. In recent years, multiple defendants have launched campaigns, including several who ran for Congress in 2024 as Republicans but did not win.
Others currently campaigning include Jake Lang, who had faced charges including assaulting an officer and civil disorder before being pardoned. Lang is now running for the Florida Senate seat previously held by Marco Rubio before Rubio became Secretary of State.
Jacob Chansley — better known as the “QAnon Shaman,” photographed shirtless in the Capitol wearing bull horns and American flag face paint — has also announced plans to run for governor of Arizona as an independent in November against Democratic incumbent Katie Hobbs. Chansley has said he has broken with Trump over the president’s reluctance to release the Epstein files.
Four other Republican candidates have filed to run in the primary for the same Manatee County seat Johnson is seeking. The incumbent, Jason Bearden, is not running for re-election.
