You get representatives in the house,
in the Senate, who have no background whatsoever in national security.
And regardless of what they say on the campaign trail
or the fact that their constituents,
Republican and Democrats alike,
want a more restrained foreign policy,
they go to DC, they get brought into the skiff at some point in time,
and they get told some really compelling information.
I’m sure the next thing you know,
they’re voting in accordance with exactly what,
you know, the military industrial complex,
the foreign aid machinery wants.
Why did you decide to run for Congress,
man? Um,
the short answer is 2020. I mean,
that was right after, about a year after Shannon was killed.
Um, and I transitioned out of,
you know, going overseas and getting shot at for a living.
And it was probably the first time I had really
paid attention to domestic politics.
Uh, I’d always voted,
but I was really focused on foreign policy.
Just with our. Our last line of work.
That’s kind of where you’re.
Where your head. Where your head goes.
Um, but coming home to the.
The city and the area that I grew up in,
and just seeing what happened during 2020
and then seeing what happened during COVID shocked me.
Um, the way that people were just
completely accepting of
surrendering all their rights to the government, um,
that shocked me. And then the riots.
Uh, I was living actually just to the south of Portland,
Oregon, when the riots happened.
After my, what,
late wife was killed, uh,
I moved pretty close to where my parents are
just to get my kids closer to my family.
And thinking it was still Portland
of the 80s and 90s that I grew up in.
But watching the riots just ravage downtown Portland.
And it wasn’t so much the riots,
it was the fact that people were going along with it,
people who should have known better.
We’re saying that, oh, no,
this is probably just, you know,
this is about civil rights,
this is about racism. And I was pretty quick on.
I was like, that’s not at all what this is about.
I mean, cause
for those of us who’ve been overseas and been in hostile environments,
it. It has a feeling.
And that’s very much the way it felt to me.
There was. There’s this unchecked violence is taking place right now.
Law and order has broken down,
and whoever is the most violent and aggressive
and the most organized
and willing to use that violence and aggression,
they’re gonna rise to the top.
And that’s exactly what I saw for all.
All of 2020. Um,
so moved just across the river to a more rural community.
Um, and then obviously,
the election went the way that it did.
We can kind of get into the backstory a little bit,
but I’d already kind of met the Trump administration
and spoken of President Trump.
At Dover, um,
after my late wife was killed,
and I was planning on going back and working in a second Trump admin.
That’s a whole separate, separate story we can get into. Um,
but then in the conservative district that I had moved to
just across the river,
my congresswoman voted for Trump’s impeachment after January 6th.
And I was mad. Everybody was mad cause she’s a Republican. Um,
but nobody was stepping forward.
There was a lot of people who were politically active in the community
who were, who were saying, hey,
we’re very mad and we’re going to censure her.
We’re gonna write her a letter.
I was just like, okay,
well, who’s stepping forward to actually primary her?
Because that’s the mechanism.
If you’re not happy with your elected official,
you should run against them or you should support another candidate,
especially in the primary.
It’s really key. A lot of people skip the primaries,
but that’s how we enforce discipline within our own ranks
as primarying people.
And I was pretty disappointed to see that nobody was stepping forward.
And then I, you know,
had a little bit of self reflection, um,
based on our, my background in the military,
and if you’re looking around to see who’s in charge,
well, congratulations,
it’s you. In absence of orders, attack!
So I just said, you know what?
I’m at least gonna run.
I’m at least gonna give her a challenge so that she knows that we,
the People are not happy with her.
Uh, ultimately prevailed in the primary,
but then general didn’t go,
so. Didn’t go as planned. Uh,
but we were really close. Less than a percentage point in the general.
So I’m. Here I am again,
running for Congress. So keeping the.
Keeping the fight up. Why did you.
I mean, a lot of people.
I’m interested in why you decided to run for.
For Congress rather than more,
more of a local political spot. Because,
you know, I think a lot of people are starting to think that the.
The federal government is just a. It’s.
It’s a. It’s lost.
It’s gone. And people seem to be concentrating more on local elections
because that’s your immediate sphere of influence.
That’s what actually probably affects you more than anything.
It does. And so I’m just. I’m.
I’m just curious. Did you consider running for local at all?
I didn’t, because I had never really considered running for office
until the woman I voted for,
my congresswoman, like,
voted for Trump’s impeachment.
She had a couple other bad votes there
that kind of put her on my radar.
Uh huh. Um,
but I assumed that somebody else,
especially
after she did something that was so against the will of her voters,
I assumed that somebody else,
maybe that was already in local office,
that already kind of had a name for themselves
and a political machine built up
that they would step forward.
And so Just seeing nobody step forward.
That’s why I went for that position in particular.
I think with my experience, though,
in the military and the intelligence community,
I think I’m best served at the federal level
because the way that the federal government has ran off the rails,
especially the way they spend so much of our money on foreign aid,
foreign wars. And we see this all the time.
You get representatives in the,
in the house and the Senate
who have no background whatsoever in national security.
And regardless of what they say on the campaign trail
or the fact that their constituents,
Republican and Democrats alike,
want a more restrained foreign policy,
they go to DC, they get brought into the,
the skiff at some point in time,
and they get told, you know,
some really compelling information,
I’m sure, and the next thing you know,
they’re voting in accordance with exactly what,
you know, the military industrial complex,
the foreign aid machinery, wants.
Whereas I think if you have more people who are from that world
and well versed in it, we can kind of call them on their,
on their BS and say, like, okay,
wait a second. What is this information?
What’s the plan?
How will sending hundreds of billions of dollars every year to Ukraine,
for instance, how will that change the actual stated outcome?
Ask real hard questions, uh,
so that we can actually start allocating a lot more resources
towards the American people.
Because I think in especially in our lifetime post 9 11,
the way that we have focused exterior on the rest of the.
The world’s security, that’s put the American people last.
And I think a lot of that is.
Is coming home to roost right now.
Um, but I think it’s hard for folks who aren’t from that world
and well versed in the national security state
just to understand exactly how we,
the people are being scammed by our government.
Man, that’s a damn good point.
I didn’t think about the. About the military industrial complex stuff.
I mean, I think about it all the time.
Yeah, you know, but.
But to have guys in there that understand it,
that makes a hell of a lot of sense, so.