North Carolina

"I took an oath to the Constitution when I joined the Marines – I believe that oath endures. I believe in what this country stands for and what we can be. The current political culture is toxic and dysfunctional, the major parties are not incentivized to be interested in serving the people, and the system of elections run by the parties is anti-competitive. As a citizen, I want better. We all deserve better. The free-market, competition, and the marketplace of ideas have made this country great – I don’t accept that we can’t get this from our politics. There are ways to get to better competition and more focus from candidates on principles and the good of the nation. To do this, we need to address the systemic problems of a duopoly that only cares about staying in power so we can get better service from our elected officials. The promise of this nation and what we can be needs to be protected and defended – who better to do this than those who truly understand sacrifice and serving something bigger than themselves?"

"Several years ago, I was having a conversation with an Irishman (in a pub, of course). He told me he was grateful to America "for democracy and all that," but wondered why we were still practicing democracy 1.0. "Here in Ireland, we're on democracy 3.0." He then explained rank-choice voting. I think this could save the Republic. The headwinds against this kind of change, however, are strong. I'm happy to lend a hand to fight those headwinds."

"Common Sense. I am excited about volunteering with VPI because our democracy desperately needs common sense ideas and leadership brought to the forefront in our political discourse. We have lost the ability to talk about, much less apply common sense solutions to our collective political decisions because of the polarized political environment we live in. As a trusted group, I believe it is my duty as a veteran (and of other veterans) to protect American's freedom by getting people to look past their ideological differences to simply apply common sense to get American Democracy back on track."

"Making an impact that will be lasting for my children and other military children as well as giving veterans voices."