Statehouses in U.S. Shut After Trump Rioters Storm U.S. Capitol

LANSING, MI - JANUARY 06: Donald Trump Supporters march around the Michigan State Capitol Building to protest the certification of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States on January 6, 2021 in Lansing, Michigan. Trump supporters gathered at state capitals across the country to protest today's ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)

(Bloomberg) -- Violent and chaotic protests at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday led several states to close their own legislative buildings, though protests outside Washington remained mostly peaceful.

Texas, Utah, New Mexico and Georgia all closed down or partially shuttered their statehouses in case protests turned violent. A mob of protesters stormed Congress earlier Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to halt the official count of Electoral College votes.

The Texas Department of Public Safety closed the statehouse in Austin “out of an abundance of caution,” it said in an emailed statement. A few hundred people had protested in front of the pink granite building before the shutdown, according to local press reports.

New Mexico evacuated its legislative building in Santa Fe, though no protesters had broken into it, said Pamela Armstrong, a spokesperson with the office of the speaker of the House.

In Atlanta, Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and his senior staff were escorted from the capitol after militia members gathered outside one day after voters handed Democrats control of the U.S. Senate with victories in two runoff races.

Raffensperger, the state official responsible for running elections, has come under fire from President Donald Trump following the president’s loss in Georgia in the Nov. 3 general election.

Protesters in Kansas entered the capitol in Topeka and spread out around the rotunda, according to State Librarian Eric Norris, who was in the third-floor library at the time. The building was mostly empty, though, as lawmakers aren’t in session until Jan. 11.

“It was tame. There was no violence,” Norris said, adding that most demonstrators had left.

Public-safety officials advised Utah lawmakers to leave the statehouse in Salt Lake City early. Nick Street, a state public safety spokesman, said his department identified “bad actors among the protest groups” and is investigating an incident in which a protester sprayed a photojournalist’s eyes with an unidentified substance. No arrests had been made.

In Sacramento, California Governor Gavin Newsom canceled a Covid-19 media briefing as protesters filled downtown streets and the grounds outside the capitol. The Sacramento Police Department said it has made “some arrests” of individuals carrying pepper spray.