Truck Convoy in Hagerstown, MD: Beltway Loops, Splits, and Lawsuit

The truck convoy that camped in Hagerstown, MD in 2022 was the People’s Convoy, a protest movement against COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates that used the Hagerstown Speedway as its base from early March through late May 2022 while running daily rolling demonstrations around the Capital Beltway. Inspired by the Canadian “Freedom Convoy” that had occupied Ottawa earlier that year, the group drove across the country from Adelanto, California, and chose the Washington County racetrack as a staging ground specifically to avoid entering the District of Columbia. The encampment ended after internal fractures, a self-declared “victory” with no concrete legislative win, and an eviction by the speedway’s general manager.

How the Convoy Ended Up at the Hagerstown Speedway

The People’s Convoy left Adelanto, California, on February 23, 2022, on an eleven-day trip east.¹ It was backed by “Freedom Fighter Nation,” a group led by lawyer Leigh Dundas, and co-organized by Ohio trucker Brian Brase and Mike Landis.² Vehicles rolled into the Hagerstown Speedway on the evening of March 4, 2022.³

Organizers said publicly that the convoy would stay in the vicinity of the D.C. area rather than enter the city, in part to avoid associations with the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.⁴ Hagerstown, roughly 70 miles northwest of Washington, offered a large private lot with room to spare. By March 5, about 1,000 vehicles had converged on the site: 18-wheelers, RVs, flatbeds, tanker trucks, pickups, and minivans with plates from states as distant as Utah, Maine, Arkansas, and Texas.⁵ Trucks parked in rows across the main lot, and organizers set up a makeshift stage on a flatbed with an American flag hung between two 30-foot booms attached to semi tow-trucks.

The scene was celebratory. Participants shared donated meals, played music, and cheered as new trucks arrived. Speakers from the flatbed stage attacked federal vaccine and mask mandates and called for the end of the national emergency declaration.⁵ Signs referenced anti-Biden slogans, “Trump won,” and “arrest Fauci,” and some attendees wore “Make America Great Again” caps.

What They Were Protesting

The convoy’s central demand was an end to COVID-19 mandates, including workplace vaccine requirements and mask rules. Organizers called on the government to “reopen the country,” “restore accountability and liberty,” and let Americans “get back to work in a free and unrestricted manner.”⁶ They argued that falling case counts, available vaccines, and therapeutics meant the pandemic emergency was no longer justified.

The grievances ran wider than the pandemic. Some attendees voiced concerns about the 2020 presidential election and other right-wing causes.⁷ Co-organizer Mike Landis described the mission as an effort to “end the tyranny that’s going on in our government.”⁸

Daily Loops Around the Capital Beltway

Starting March 6, 2022, the convoy left the speedway each morning to circle Interstate 495, the Capital Beltway, and then returned to Hagerstown at night. On the first day the group looped twice, with vehicles spread out enough by the second lap that congestion resembled an ordinary weekday commute.⁴

Incidents escalated in the weeks that followed. On March 14, drivers caught up in the convoy on I-295 were seen turning their vehicles around on the median strip, with some getting stuck in mud; D.C. police responded by closing ramps for roughly two hours at 14th Street SW, the 3rd Street Tunnel, South Capitol Street, and D.C. Route 295. On March 16, convoy participants stopped in a center lane on the main span of the 14th Street Bridge for about 20 minutes, with people exiting their vehicles and walking across travel lanes.⁹

Agencies had prepared for the arrival. The Pentagon approved a request to deploy several hundred National Guard troops to help with Beltway traffic.¹⁰ The Capitol Police Board issued an emergency declaration on March 6, and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser secured an extension of the National Guard’s authorization in Washington through March 9.⁶ D.C. police used rolling closures and ramp blockades to manage the convoy as it moved through the city.

Who Ran It, and the Trouble That Followed

Brian Brase, a 37-year-old truck driver from northwest Ohio, was the lead organizer. Brase, who said he had lost his livelihood during the pandemic and his son to suicide, led the 2,500-mile trip over eleven days.¹¹ He insisted the group did not intend to “tie up traffic” or “shut down the Beltway,” and that entering the capital was off-limits because of January 6.⁴

In late March, during a livestreamed campfire session, Brase said of the Capitol attack: “I would have been inside that Capitol building (but) I was shifting gears. You bet your a– I would have went in!” He also told followers, “You will have to kill me before I allow you to stick a needle in my arm.”¹² He left the convoy soon after, later appearing on Newsmax to say “the fight in D.C. isn’t over.”¹³

The movement also drew participation from right-wing extremist figures. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the convoy’s official Telegram channel posted Three Percenter content and solicited donations for an event organized by the Washington Three Percent, and Erik Rohde, a known member of that group, identified himself as a “consultant” to organizers.¹⁰ The ADL noted ties to QAnon through organizer Leigh Dundas and reported that an administrator for a Telegram channel organizing convoy support was a member of the Maryland D.C. Proud Boys chapter, with Randy Ireland, president of a New York Proud Boys chapter, raising more than $107,000 on GiveSendGo for convoy-related campaigns.¹⁴ ABC News reported that Confederate flags were displayed at the Hagerstown encampment.⁸

Splits, Departures, and a Trip Back West

The crowd at the speedway thinned as the weeks dragged on. Some members grew frustrated with the strategy of endlessly circling the Beltway and pushed to go downtown, which organizers repeatedly blocked.⁸ The dissent prompted Landis to take a brief leave before returning to his organizing duties. Brase left for good.

At a March 27 meeting, Landis pivoted the group’s attention to a batch of California bills on employer vaccine mandates and school requirements, asking supporters, “What do you all think about heading to California?” and telling them the convoy would target both Los Angeles and Sacramento.⁸ A portion of the group followed him west.¹⁵ The rest stayed at the Hagerstown Speedway.

How the Hagerstown Encampment Ended

On May 20, 2022, at 2:30 p.m. EST, the People’s Convoy posted a statement to Facebook declaring that the organization “declares victory and announces its conclusion of the national convoy portion of this great movement.” The group said it would move to state-level work through local chapters, with any future activity on an “individual basis.”¹⁶

There was no specific legislative win to attach the word “victory” to. There was, instead, an eviction. Hagerstown Speedway General Manager Lisa Plessinger, who had initially allowed the group to stay for what she expected would be a single night, told the remaining members to leave. She compared the extended stay to “when your mother-in-law comes to visit and decides to stay.” With racing season in full swing, she wanted the facility back and was tired of refereeing feuding factions without a single point of contact. “I want one convoy, one leader, one person that I have to deal with,” she said. “I’m not a babysitter.”¹⁷ The roughly 100 remaining members left the property peacefully by 10 p.m. that night.¹⁶

Lawsuit and What Came After

In May 2022, sixteen convoy participants sued the District of Columbia, alleging the Metropolitan Police Department had violated their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly. The plaintiffs claimed police set up intentional blockades on I-395 and I-695 during March 2022 to keep the convoy out of downtown Washington. The suit also alleged violations of due process and equal protection and argued that the blockades contributed to the deaths of two people who crashed a car into a police barricade.¹⁸

Protest activity in the capital area did not stop with the eviction. The “1776 Restoration Movement,” an offshoot led by David “Santa” Riddell, continued camping and holding meetings along the National Mall into August 2022, carrying forward the broader complaints about government mandates and civil liberties with a much smaller following.¹⁹

1
Newsweek. How the Freedom Convoy Is Getting to DC: Route and Timeline
2
The Guardian. US Freedom Convoy: Canada COVID Vaccine
3
WJLA. People’s Convoy On Track for Arrival in Hagerstown, Maryland
4
The New York Times. DC Truck Convoy Protest
5
The Washington Post. People’s Convoy Protest Hagerstown
6
KCRA. Trucker Convoy Washington DC
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WJLA. People’s Convoy Traffic at Hagerstown Speedway
8
ABC News. Protesting COVID Mandates, People’s Convoy Heads Back to California
9
WTOP. How Is the Trucker Convoy Affecting DC Traffic: A Day by Day Look
10
ADL. People’s Convoy Trucker Protest Gains Support From Some Right-Wing Extremists
11
The Washington Post. DC Convoy Leader Brian Brase
12
New York Daily News. Trucker Convoy Leader Says He Would Have Been Inside That Capitol Building on Jan. 6
13
The Daily Beast. People’s Convoy Leader Brian Brase Surfaces on Newsmax After Ditching Convoy
14
ADL. People’s Convoy Trucker Protest Gains Support From Some Right-Wing Extremists
15
Daily News. People’s Convoy Set to Roll Into Downtown LA
16
Herald-Mail Media. People’s Convoy Protest COVID Mandates Forced to Leave Maryland Speedway
17
NBC Washington. Hagerstown Speedway Evicts Truckers From People’s Convoy
18
Newsweek. Trucker Convoy Members Sue DC, Alleging First Amendment Rights Violated
19
The Washington Post. People’s Convoy 1776 Protest DC