Far-Right Patriot Prayer Plans Oregon Return Alongside GOP Rep. Mike Nearman

The far-right group Patriot Prayer is planning a return to Salem, Oregon, in May to hold a gun rights event.

The rally is being promoted online by the group's leader Joey Gibson and is scheduled to take place on May 1 at Riverfront Park.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed," an image promoting the event reads.

Oregon state Rep. Mike Nearman and Jo Rae Perkins, a prominent QAnon supporter who was the Republican Senate nominee in Oregon before losing to Democratic incumbent Jeff Merkley in November, are among those listed as attendees at the May 1 event.

Patriot Prayer, along with fellow extremist group Proud Boys, has held frequent rallies and demonstrations in Salem and Portland, Oregon, down the years.

On December 21, far-right demonstrators, including Patriot Prayer members, forced their way into the Oregon Capitol while protesting coronavirus restrictions in the state.

An investigation was launched into Rep. Nearman after surveillance footage showed him allowing extremists to gain entry to the Capitol building.

In January, Nearman was stripped of his committee responsibilities and told he must give 24 hours notice before coming to the Capitol building as part of a number of restrictions imposed on him over his role in the breach.

Nearman was also fined $2,000 for the damage caused inside the building, with House Speaker Tina Kotek calling for him to resign.

"His actions have created immense fear among legislators and Capitol staff," Kotek said in a statement. "I believe he should resign immediately because he has already breached the public trust and endangered our ability to safely conduct the people's business."

On January 5, Patriot Prayer members were among hundreds who clashed with police and counter-demonstrators at a rally outside the Oregon Capitol in Salem to protest Congress' certification of the presidential election for Joe Biden.

The event coincided with similar large protests in Washington, D.C., which took place one day before Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in support of the then-president's baseless claims of widespread election fraud costing him the election.

Among those who took part in the riot at the Capitol on January 6 were far-right extremists and followers of the radical QAnon movement.

After winning the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Oregon last year, Perkins posted a video of her holding a sticker with the letters "WWG1WGA"—an abbreviation of the QAnon slogan "where we go one we go all"—adding "I stand with Q and the team."

"Thank you anons, thank you patriots, and together we can save our republic," she said in the video which was later deleted by her campaign team.

The City of Salem and Nearman have been contacted for comment.