Almost two hundred anti-quarantine protestors descended on Maine’s state capitol in Augusta today to blare car horns and wave Trump flags in protest of the stay-at-home order imposed by Governor Janet Mills on March 16th. The rally was organized on the “Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine” Facebook page by State Representative Chris Johansen and former State Representative Larry Lockman— who is known locally for spreading white nationalist conspiracy theories and was endorsed by US Senator Susan Collins in his State Representative re-election campaign in 2014.

On April 16th, Johansen created a “Reopen Maine” Facebook event where he urged Mainers to “fill up their gas tanks and get ready to rumble,” emphasizing it was “their right” to travel to Augusta and protest Mill’s lockdown order, despite any health risks attending the rally may pose to themselves and others.

“Many of the State's areas are low risk and dying due to restrictions on their small businesses, churches and hospitals,” Johansen claimed in a April 16th Facebook post. “The 1st amendment enshrines our Right to peaceably assemble.”

Johansen’s “Reopen Maine” event was quickly amplified in a April 17th Facebook post by Lockman, who urged protestors to “wear MAGA hats” and decorate their cars with flags and posters. “Bring a bull horn, if you have one,” Lockman’s Facebook post continued. “This is about the loss of our civil rights and its impact on our businesses and religion.”

Like many white nationalists, Lockman believes abortion and immigration are part of a global conspiracy to eliminate the white race. When Maine began building immigrant welcome centers in 2017, Lockman said it was a part of liberals “war on whites.” In 2018, Lockman gained national attention for claiming men should be able to rape women if abortion is legal. He is also known in Maine for fighting against AIDS education saying, “in the overwhelming majority of cases, people are dying because of their addiction to sodomy.”

After Lockman’s April 17th endorsement of the rally, the Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine Facebook group began speculating that Nirav Shah, an Indian immigrant and current CDC director of Maine, was part of a globalist cabal led by billionaire philanthropist, George Soros. Anti-semitic conspiracy theorists often speculate Soros is investing his billions into lobbying for open borders so that immigrants can flood into America and slowly erase the white race.

“Well well well….another turn of events, Paul Soros, brother to George Soros funded our Maine CDC directors education,” one group member posted to the Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine Facebook page on April 19th.

“Soros is from Germany and during WWII he was a Nazi sympathizer who ratted on his fellow Jewish people then would turn a profit by selling the houses to the Gestapo,” one member replied. “This is how he made all of his money and survived being executed by turning in his own people.”

When the morning of April 20th finally rolled around, several Mainers Against Excessive Quarantine members showed hesitation about expressing their political leaning during the rally, or attending at all, even though Lockman had pushed for protesters to “wear MAGA” gear.

“Showing up with MAGA hats or any sign of political affiliation at todays rally is a death sentence for this movement. Think very carefully before you do,” one member posted. The post was met with fury, with another member saying “sorry ahead of time, I wear a Trump hat EVERYDAY and I have a lot of Trump shirts too. Today will be no different.”

Attendees did ultimately heed Lockman’s advice on protest attire. The scene at the rally was full of Trump 2020 banners and red MAGA hats, but not many protestors wore face masks, even though Lockman had insisted his followers do so— Lockman himself was spotted organizing a large group of unmasked protestors. “I’m just wearing a face mask so my boss doesn’t recognize me,” one rally attendee admitted.

When the rally was in full swing, videos captured protestors shouting to “exterminate Washington” and brandishing signs claiming “the media is the real virus”, while other protestors said they were attending because they just “needed a haircut.”

Towards the end of the protest, a group chanted, “the people united, will never be divided,” which much like the rally, dissipated rather quickly, ending with a spattering of applause and a lone guttural shout. The protest ran from 12PM to 2PM, but many people ran out of steam and left before the two hour mark was up.

Maine’s stay-at-home order is slated to last until April 30th and prior to the rally, there have been 867 confirmed cases and 34 deaths in the state. The next few weeks will determine if the stay-at-home order will be extended.