Last week, Mark Middleton and his wife Jalise Middleton were arrested for their part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. The rural Montague County, North Texas, couple can be seen on Capitol Police body cameras hitting and cursing at officers as the officers try to hold back the siege of rioting MAGA supporters. NBC reports that at one point in the video, when asked to “Get back” by an officer, Mark Middleton screams “Fuck you” at him. Jalise Middleton, according to the FBI, is also allegedly videotaped repeatedly grabbing and striking a police officer over the barricade with her hand. The couple also posted damning Facebook statements after the riots, which have since been deleted.
And while NBC reports that Mark Middleton is “a volunteer firefighter and pilot, worked at Nortex Communications, an internet service provider in Muenster, and has a master’s degree in theology from Liberty University,” CNN has an even more interesting report as to what Mark Middleton does. It turns out that about one month after Donald Trump lost the national election, and one month before the Jan. 6 insurgency, Mark Middleton “was appointed as the chair of Precinct 14 in Cooke County” for the Republican Party.
The man and wife team that wrote, "We are on the front lines. We helped push down the barriers. We had to retreat, but more patriots pushed forward, and they're taking back our house," is also the man who was appointed by a committee of local MAGA heads to become a precinct officer.
The Texas Republican Party says the duty of its precinct chairs is to "help promote and grow the local county party" and "to maximize the Republican vote in your precinct."
According to VICE, two weeks after the Middletons’ participated in what would later result in one of the single most depressing attacks on our democracy, Mark Middleton served as a poll worker for a special election in Cooke County. The charges the couple face include:
- Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers
- Obstruction of Law Enforcement During Civil Disorder
- Obstruction of Justice/Congress
- Knowingly Entering or Remaining in any Restricted Building or Grounds Without Lawful Authority
- Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds
- Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds, Violent Entry and Disorderly Conduct on Capitol Grounds
The FBI’s two complaints against the couple are filled with images of the couple at “the front lines,” as Jalise Middleton wrote on Facebook and then deleted. The Dallas Observer reports that the two have entered pleas of not guilty. The Observer also spoke with the network operations manager of Nortex Communications, Chris McNamara, who is “also the chair of the Cooke County Republican Party.” Mark Middleton worked at Nortex. McNamara said that while Mark no longer worked at Nortex, McNamara and the other Cooke County Republicans had not seen any reason to remove Middleton after Jan. 6. “We were aware that he went up to D.C. in January, but he assured us that he didn’t participate in any of the insurrection activities. And of course, the party, and me especially, we don’t condone anything that he’s been accused of.”
Note the “and me especially,” since it’s a strange thing to distinguish after proclaiming that the group you are representing already agrees with you. Navy veteran and Cooke County Democratic Chair John Angus told the Observer: “This whole thing was about overturning an election by force that was certified by 50 states, many of whom were run by Republicans. So I don’t want anybody like that, to be honest, to be anywhere near our election polls. Not at all.”
McNamara also told both CNN and the Observer that Mark is precinct chair until at least 2022, as the Cooke County Republican Party “has no mechanism for removing him,” though Middleton could always resign. The Cooke County Republican Party, like the rest of the Republican Party, is unable to govern even themselves, let alone the citizens of the United States.
Jalise Middleton reportedly worked at Gainesville’s Angels Care Home Health. According to reports, she no longer has that gig. Middleton is still listed as the 14th precinct chair on the Cooke County Republican Party website.
