When I was 23, I left home to join the Navy. I didn’t expect to stay long, but I learned something: we midwesterners quit poorly.
After thirty-seven years, I retired and moved home. I decided to run for U.S. Senate to defeat Joni Ernst because Iowans deserve leadership in Washington, D.C. This is how I continue forty years of service.
I’m continuing my forty years of service by running to beat Joni Ernst.
Now, my primary opponent Theresa Greenfield’s well monied friends are attacking me for my service. A new attack ad, playing all across Iowa, is condemning me for moving home just last year. Frankly, I was a little busy.
I was busy leading all the troops in Africa. I was busy starting the federal agency which locates, identifies, and retrieves the remains of POW/MIA soldiers. I was busy serving as the first military staffer for Senator Ted Kennedy. I was even busy fighting pirates and Ebola.
I retired when Donald Trump was elected. That’s when I returned home and ran for U.S. Senate.
These attacks are military discrimination. They are saying that no career military officer should run for public office. They used these attacks in 2018 against Amy McGrath. They failed.
I’m calling on my primary opponent, Theresa Greenfield, to tell her Washington friends to stop their attacks on me and my service.