“Rally Runner” is somewhat of a local celebrity in St. Louis. A photo of him was
featured in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in October 2013, when the Cardinals reached the World Series. The man, who did not provide a name, told the paper his running “strengthens the spirit for the Cardinals to get the energy to win.” (They lost to the Red Sox in six games that year.) He also
told St. Louis magazine in 2016 that running around the stadium was “spiritual,” that his “memory is horrible” and that he’d like to publish his journal as a book.
“Rally Runner” has built up a decent Facebook following, and, like millions of his fellow Facebook users who supported the former president, he also got swept up in lies that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump. He documented it all online, including his trip to Washington for the Jan. 6 rally that became a riot. He appears in many pictures taken that day — standing out in his signature red face paint, with a red “Keep America Great” hat standing in for his usual Cardinals cap. Online sleuths investigating the U.S. Capitol attack have nicknamed him #RedFace45 and tipped HuffPost off about his identity after Carlson’s show Monday.
McBride, contacted by HuffPost and informed about the man’s actual identity, at first stuck with his claim.
“I don’t believe that at all,” he said at first. “Amateur mascot or not, we maintain our position.”
www.huffpost.com
www.salon.com
