Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who testified about the January 6 attack before a House panel in 2021 and recently retired from the department, is now running to join the ranks of the elected officials he protected from a riotous mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
Dunn, a former college American football player who spent nearly two decades as a police officer, said during an appearance on the MSNBC show Morning Joe that he would run in Maryland’s third district, where current Democrat John Sarbanes recently announced he would not seek re-election this year.
“I feel like I’ve run with the Capitol police for the last 15-plus years of public service in that capacity. So, here I am to anounce my candidacy for Congress in the third district of Maryland,” he said.
Continuing, he asked, “What better way than to continue to fight for the people of Maryland, for the people of the United States, and continue to defend democracy?”
Dunn said the January 6 attack “exposed how weak and fragile” American democracy really is and, citing Trump’s promise to be a “dictator” on his first day in office if he 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 counter the people in Congress at this moment that I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life protecting,” he said. “I want to serve as an equal, as a peer. I want a seat at the table. I’m ready for this challenge.”
The officer turned congressional candidate is a native of Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he graduated from Surratsville 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 on the Capitol’s grounds. He also was a member of the department’s Crisis Negotiation Team, responsible for responding to hostage situations.
Last year, he was one of the officers President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, the country’s second-highest civilian honor.