Actor Profile: Oath Keepers

The second installment in our new actor profile series reviews the latest data on Oath Keepers activity around the United States. Access all data and additional actor profiles through our US Research Hub. Definitions and methodology decisions are explained in our US Coverage FAQs and our US methodology brief. For more information, please check the full ACLED Resource Library.

The Oath Keepers are one of the most prominent militia groups in the United States. Much of their known activity predates the ACLED dataset (which currently extends to the beginning of 2020). While the Oath Keepers have been active participants in fewer than 20 demonstration events since the start of last year, they tend to play an outsized role in the events in which they do participate. This is evidenced by the significant involvement of Oath Keepers in the ‘Million MAGA Marches’ in the latter half of 2020, and in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. 

Membership, Leadership, Ideology, and Structure

The Oath Keepers are a nationwide militia organization founded in the wake of the 2008 election in reaction to Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s victory over Republican candidate John McCain. A primary motivating factor for their foundation was the fear of a gun confiscation program akin to the small-scale firearm seizure program during the government response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (POLICE Magazine, 4 April 2013; Southern Poverty Law Center, 2021).

Membership

The Oath Keepers are largely composed of current and former law enforcement officers or military personnel, and the group targets people with links to security forces in its recruitment efforts (NPR, 10 April 2021). The Oath Keepers were organized to maintain the ‘oath’ sworn by law enforcement officers and members of the military to protect the US from their perceived foreign and domestic enemies, notably the vaguely defined “Marxist left” (Anti-Defamation League, 2021).

Although membership in the organization is primarily drawn from active and retired military and police, some members of the Oath Keepers have no experience in these occupations. These members are often discussed among the group as “associate members” who “have not taken the Oath.” Associate members are technically relegated to a lower membership status compared to active and former law enforcement officers, firefighters, and members of the military (Oath Keepers, 2021).

Leadership

Rhodes is a veteran of the US Army and a Yale Law School graduate (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2021). He is rarely involved in group chats for Oath Keepers, preferring to keynote Oath Keepers national calls and local recruitment events instead. He is, however, known to coordinate on the ground, especially in high-profile public events. His role in coordination is evident in events such as the trial of the police officer who shot Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and in the 6 January 2021 storming of the US Capitol building (Business Insider, 25 September 2020).

Ideology

The group adheres to a list of 10 “Orders We Will Not Obey,” which include disarmament, warrantless searches, and turning US cities into concentration camps (The Atlantic, November 2020). Ironically, two of these are that the group will not obey orders to subject citizens to military tribunal nor will they obey orders to impose martial law — actions that Rhodes and his members were advocating for after the recent general election (NBC News, 2 February 2021).

Structure

The group’s national structure is not as firm as its bylaws imply. The primary purpose of the organization’s national leadership framework is to set strategic goals, to fundraise, and to drive recruitment efforts for chapters around the country. It is therefore not uncommon for members of state Oath Keepers chapters to know and to organize with some chapters across state lines yet not with others (The Atlantic, November 2020).

Historical Activity

The Oath Keepers are known for a history of conspiratorial and highly aggressive reactions to contemporary events in US politics. For example, in 2013, they created “Citizen Preservation” groups to counter encroachment by the “New World Order,” a supposedly overarching worldwide socialist government put in place by powerful domestic leftists and the United Nations (Daily Beast, 15 October 2013). They were controversially involved in the armed militia response to the Ferguson uprisings after the killing of Michael Brown, a Black man, by police in 2014 (BBC, 12 August 2015).

Recent Developments and Activity

Just ahead of the 2016 election, the Oath Keepers put out a “call to action” to members, asking them to clandestinely monitor polls to catch illegal election activity as part of “Operation Sabot 2016” (Huffington Post, 28 October 2016).

Trends in ACLED data

Oath Keepers activity is largely oriented around reactions to demonstrations by left-leaning movements and groups. Their stated enemies, the “Marxist left,” broadly includes everything from BLM supporters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, providing a wide range of political adversaries. Nearly three-quarters of all demonstration events in which members of the Oath Keepers have participated since the start of last year through the end of May 2021 have involved counter-demonstrators. Of these events, the Oath Keepers showed up to counter-demonstrate against another protest slightly more than half the time.

Oath Keepers in the Near Future

The Oath Keepers are likely to remain a significant actor within the armed militia movement in the US. The organization’s raison d’etre — preventing the government from infringing on gun ownership — is likely to remain a major recruiting device.