The People’s Convoy trucker protest group on Sunday announced that it would head to California in the coming weeks to protest COVID-19 mandates there following daily excursions in and around the Washington, D.C., area.
“I think stopping those is more important at this point in time than getting the emergency declaration repealed because that’s already in place and we need to stop stuff like these bills from getting in place,” organizer Mike Landis said after reading a list of measures that he said were pending in California, The Herald-Mail reported. “Otherwise, the rest of us that don’t live in California are going to end up subject to the same situation.”
The group echoed the sentiment through a statement on their website.
“If passed, these bills set the stage for other states to introduce similar laws. We know that what starts in CA, spreads to other blue and purple states, and potentially at a federal level,” the group said. ”This affects everyone!”
The People’s Convoy, inspired by the Canadian truckers’ “Freedom Convoy” movement, has regularly traveled from Hagerstown Speedway to downtown D.C for the past three weeks, usually traveling as a group of big rigs, cars and campers.
Landis invited people to convoy on Monday to a rally in Harrisburg, Pa., before heading West, according to The Associated Press. He also hinted at a possible return to the D.C. area.
“We’re not done here,” he said. “We’ll go to California and raise awareness along the way and hopefully get more people like we did on our way here. And then, once we stop this, we’ll come back to finish this job.”