Though the Proud Boys have avoided the national spotlight since the Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s presidential defeat, that doesn’t mean the far-right, violent, misogynist militia has gone anywhere. As The Daily Beast has previously reported, the Proud Boys have been showing up at school board meetings across the country, local mask protests, and city council meetings to intimidate small-town proceedings and recruit new members. “The plan of attack if you want to make change is to get involved at the local level,” North Carolina Proud Boy, Jeremy Bertino, told The New York Times. Bertino claims the militia has undergone internal restructuring, with local chapters replacing national oversight.

The alarming development shows that the militia is pursuing a grassroots strategy to push their far-right ideologies in small towns as they prepare for the 2022 midterm elections. Their presence has agitated small towns, with several schools forced to cancel classes when local Proud Boys descended on campuses to protest mask rules.