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Florida is the second state in the United States with the highest number of identified members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front, according to internal documents leaked to by a source within the organization itself.
The leak includes a list of members from 72 páginas, internal communications, activity reports, and recruitment material that allowed for tracking the group's presence throughout the country.
What do the leaked documents reveal?
According to the research, Texas tops the list of states with the most identified members, closely followed by Florida.
The documents show that Patriot Front has a presence in every state in the country except Hawaii, highlighting a sustained national expansion.
One of the most striking pieces of information is that the group's leadership set an internal goal to reach 600 members before July 4, 2026, a symbolic date marking Independence Day in the United States.
The records also show that the organization maintains a hierarchical and disciplined structure that requires its members to participate in street propaganda, physical training, and coordinated events.
However, the internal documents themselves acknowledge difficulties in increasing membership and maintaining the active participation of some members.
Who are they and what do they stand for?
Patriot Front was founded in 2017 by Thomas Ryan Rousseau as a splinter group from Vanguard America, following the march Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia, one of the most violent episodes of white extremism in recent U.S. history.
Following the widespread public condemnation that followed that march, Rousseau created a more disciplined organization with a more "patriotic" image, designed to evade public scrutiny and attract new recruits without openly revealing its racist agenda.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the George Washington University Program on Extremism classify the group as a white supremacist and neofascist organization that promotes a "nationalist ideology based on European ethnic identity."
Their public slogan is "life, liberty, and victory," but internally the group refers to a "total reboot" of American society, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
The group uses as an emblem a fasces and a circle of 13 stars, symbols that combine references to imperial Rome with foundational American iconography.
The footprint of Patriot Front in Florida
The presence of the group in Florida is well documented.
The ADL recorded 150 incidents by the group in the state since January 2021, most of which consisted of the distribution of white supremacist propaganda: graffiti, banners, and flyers.
Among the most notable episodes is a paramilitary training held in Tallahassee in October 2021, which included shield maneuvers and extraction drills, involving approximately a dozen members.
In February 2022, the group distributed propaganda in Tallahassee with the slogans "not stolen, conquered" and "united we stand".
On February 24, 2023, members of the group placed a banner over a billboard in Arcadia, Florida.
Members of Patriot Front also marched through downtown Tallahassee and posed for photographs in front of the state Capitol.
The debate in Congress
On May 21, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing in which Democratic lawmakers identified Patriot Front as a hate group listed on the SPLC map.
At the national level, in 2023 the ADL recorded 7,567 incidents of white supremacist propaganda across the country, a record high, and Patriot Front was responsible for 60% of those distributions.
Florida, with its high concentration of Latino, African American, and Jewish communities, represents a strategic target for the group, whose expansion in the state is being closely monitored by organizations specialized in tracking extremism.
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