Meet Jake Lang: Right-wing Senate Hopeful Wants to Deputise the Proud Boys to Bounty Hunt Illegal Immigrants

Edward Jacob 'Jake' Lang, a 29-year-old right-wing Senate candidate in Florida and convicted Capitol rioter, has proposed a plan to deputise members of the Proud Boys to hunt undocumented immigrants for cash rewards.

The radical idea, condemned by legal experts as unconstitutional, marks one of the most extreme immigration policies floated in the 2026 election cycle.

Lang said he would work with local sheriffs to deputise far-right civilians to locate, detain, and arrest undocumented immigrants by offering them bounties for doing so.

A Pardon, a Platform, and a Violent Past

Lang, who received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump in January, is challenging interim Republican Senator Ashley Moody for Florida's Senate seat in the August 2026 primary election.

Before his pardon, Lang faced 11 charges, including assaulting police officers with an aluminium baseball bat during the Capitol riot. Prosecutors alleged he fought police for approximately two and a half hours near a Capitol entrance that witnessed the most intense violence that day. He spent four years in prison, including 900 days in solitary confinement.

The Proud Boys, whom Lang proposes to deputise, have a troubled history. In May 2023, a federal jury found four Proud Boys leaders guilty of seditious conspiracy for their actions during the Capitol breach. Former national chairman Enrique Tarrio received a 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy, which the court determined constituted an official act of terrorism.

Whilst private policing and bounty hunting were part of early American law enforcement, such practices are now largely obsolete. Federal deputisation programmes generally involve formally trained state or local police officers, not private citizens.

Reviving Extremism Under the Guise of Law Enforcement

Lang's proposal echoes broader trends under the Trump administration, which has overseen a significant expansion of federal and local law enforcement powers. In recent months, high-profile immigration raids by unmasked federal agents have drawn comparisons to paramilitary operations.

Upon announcing his candidacy in March, Lang declared: 'WE ARE TAKING OVER THE CAPITOL AGAIN,' adding that 'the story of the January 6 Hostages isn't over – it's just begun'. He has promised to be 'an unyielding advocate of Trump's agenda in the US Senate'.

During his recent interview, Lang doubled down on claims that the 2020 election was stolen and defended the Capitol riot. When asked whether police were assaulted on 6 January, he responded that he did not believe those actions constituted assaults in the legal definition.'

Lang framed his candidacy as symbolic of a broader political shift: 'If voters vote for me, they're voting for the Trump mandate. I am a Trump loyalist... I'm symbolic of the political shift from old-school Republicanism to the Make America Great Again movement'.

Long Odds and a Divisive Message

Political analysts doubt Lang's chances in the Republican primary, which pits him against incumbent Ashley Moody, a DeSantis appointee and former Florida attorney general.

Jake Hoffman, of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, said Lang's campaign represents 'a protest candidacy with no mathematical chance of success.'

The Florida Senate special election is scheduled for 3 November, 2026. Despite his low odds, Lang's run highlights the extent to which the Capitol riot's legacy continues to shape America's political right — and the dangerous space where ideology blurs into extremism.