Two former police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 are speaking out about an ad from a prominent Democratic candidate which features an attendee of the rally that day — and they are deeply unhappy.
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“This is exactly why, not just me, but the American people have such a low opinion of politicians,” Michael Fanone, a District of Columbia Metropolitan Police officer who was violently assaulted during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, told HuffPost in a phone interview Thursday. “They’ll do or say anything to get elected, even a Democrat.”
He was speaking of Texas’ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa’s latest ad showcasing an endorsement from a woman who attended President Donald Trump’s rally attempting to overturn the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021.
The ad, released on Thursday, features Lynn Davenport, a self-described “staunch conservative” who is opting to support Hinojosa over the state’s current governor and Republican pick, Trump ally Greg Abbott.
“I was at the Jan. 6 rally. I’m a staunch conservative, but I cannot support Gov. Greg Abbott. Greg Abbott is bought and paid for by the billionaires and the corporations – those are his donors; that’s who he listens to. No more,” Davenport says in the short 15-second spot, where she appears alone.
“She voted for President Trump, and she rides hard for me,” Hinojosa said at the Texas Tribune Festival as she revealed the ad, according to the festival’s namesake paper.
As he defended the Capitol, Fanone was beaten and electroshocked on his neck with a Taser, his radio ripped from him and badge stripped. Fanone had a heart attack and lost consciousness, assaulted by a group of men five at a time. Over 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6.
Fanone acknowledged that potential political calculus might go into working with someone like Davenport — but disavowed the practice completely, accusing the Democratic Party of abandoning accountability for the events of Jan. 6.
“They would rather campaign alongside an insurrectionist than campaign alongside an officer that fought to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6…that is disgusting. She should be ashamed of herself. It’s a disgrace,” Fanone said.
He added that if he was a Texan, he “would be out there calling this out at every campaign event that she went to.”
In a statement to HuffPost on Thursday, Hinojosa emphasized that Davenport did not “storm the Capitol” but only attended the rally out of her strong support for Trump.
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“But we both know that Greg Abbott has used our differences to distract us from his grift. He has sold out our public schools and our kids to his big-dollar donors. Lynn and I disagree on a lot ― but we agree on this: Texas public schools can’t survive four more years of Greg Abbott. I welcome her support, because Democrats, Republicans and Independents deserve a governor who will put Texans first,” she said.
Davenport, according to CNN, said she was at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and had only attended so she could listen to Trump speak. That speech didn’t seem to hold Davenport’s interest for long: She left in the middle of it for a hot dog before she went back to her hotel for a nap.
“He wasn’t saying anything,” Davenport said.
Davenport did not immediately return a request for comment to HuffPost.
In a phone interview with HuffPost on Thursday, former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was also a prominent defender of the Capitol building on Jan. 6, said he would support any Democrat running to unseat Abbott, but he wants to know more from Hinojosa about why she wanted to include Davenport at all.
“I personally wouldn’t want any support from a Jan. 6er. On principle, I don’t think I could morally stomach that,” he said.
On Jan. 6, Dunn kept rioters at bay for hours and was viciously taunted and attacked while rioters hurled racial epithets at him. He was an integral witness for federal prosecutors who convicted members of the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy, and in the years since the Capitol assault, he tried his hand at politics, too, running for office twice. (Dunn lost a primary bid to replace longtime Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland in June, and in 2024, he was defeated in a Maryland primary race by the state’s Democratic Sen. Sara Elfreth.)
“I don’t believe all people involved in Jan. 6 are inherently bad, but I don’t have a soft spot in my heart for any of them,” Dunn said. “Even Pam Hemphill, who professed how sorry she was. I’m sure she is. But we’re not aligned.”
Hemphill, known as “MAGA Granny,” rejected a pardon from Trump and has testified before Congress about her deep regret for her involvement in the chaos that day.
“You may have messed up and people deserve a second chance, but you don’t deserve a second chance for my allegiance. There may have been people there that were probably good people. I don’t want to find out who they were. I have no interest in that,” Dunn said.
Dunn added that he wished Hinojosa would have used Davenport’s spot in the ad to better explain why she, as a candidate, felt it was wise to bring her on.
Of course, Davenport provides a helpful “contrast,” Dunn said.
“Even bad people are voting against Greg Abbott,” he said.
Per a recent Marist poll, Hinojosa leads Abbot by three points among registered voters in Texas.
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