Dad. Husband. Vet. “Small-town kid from the county line road.” Fmr US House candidate. 38x marathoner. Working resilience, public service, and policy outcomes.
As a reminder:
The views I express here are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, Navy, or any other employer.
I’m a ballot observer at a table with a Republican lawyer who is objecting to ALL military absentee ballots to keep them from being counted.
Absolutely sickening.
Another update: they just returned all the previously-objected military ballots to my table and instructed Republican observers not to object to military ballots.
This tweet worked, y’all, but it shouldn’t take a Twitter microphone for military votes to be counted, every time.
Hi
@realDonaldTrump
. 👋
Navy vet here. I voted by mail from an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Persian Gulf - twice. ✌️
Were my shipmates & I engaging in “massive fraud” then? Were you when you voted in Florida elections from The White House? 🤷♂️
Asking for a nation. 🇺🇸
We’ve got neighbors and veterans busting their asses to cast a ballot and exercise their right to vote, and then we’ve got Republican lawyers standing in their way to throw out their ballots and disenfranchise them. GTFOH.
I supported Operation Enduring Freedom.
I never set foot in Afghanistan.
How?
I flew off of an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean supporting troops on the ground.
Much like Tim Walz supported OEF in Italy and Turkey through base security to support troops on the ground.
@FPWellman
Once you get to 20 years, you have earned the right to retire.
Not only that, but the Guard - to include his entire Chain of Command - had to sign off on his retirement, which they did without incident.
I voted by military absentee ballot more than 10 times in my career.
And today, as I watched this GOP lawyer object to every single military ballot, I thought to myself, “Is this what happened to my vote?”
Did any of them ever really count?
This BS stops right here, right now.
Spoke with
@OliviaDanceTV
today about military absentees and she reports:
“Earlier in the day, a GOP lawyer attempted to challenge military absentee ballots. That objection was later withdrawn and all absentee ballots from the military were counted.” 🙌
Yes, America, Dan Crenshaw really is this bad. He was this bad when we studied at Harvard, he was this bad in the service. He is without ethics or morals and seeks in every interaction to honor only himself. He is a small mind playacting a serious person. Reject him.
#TX02
BREAKING: 68-page report from the VA Office Inspector General says three witnesses confirm Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) was the one who planted information in a smear campaign against a female veteran, who was sexually assaulted, to disparage her credibility.
@JayDevvvv
The military voter absentee ballot envelope includes their address in barcode form instead of spelled out. Even though these ballots are verified by bipartisan elections officials before they get to our table...they are still prima facie objecting to every military ballot.
This is the weakest answer I have ever heard. If you’re too afraid of Donald Trump, just say so. Otherwise, defend the Constitution.
If you’re not willing to take a stand - what the hell did we send you to Congress for? Do your job or resign today, Congressman.
#NY24
I really appreciate
@Tim_Walz
for stepping up and saying “hey, I misspoke - and thanks to JD Vance for his service, too.”
That’s a level of grace and humility you don’t often find in politics. Gov Walz is a real one! Normalize not being a dick in public.
My opponent in
#NY24
voted 𝗡𝗢 on impeachment - then 𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗗 Trump. 🤷♂️
He’s already taken more than $1 mil in PAC & GOP 💰.
I’m the rural vet & dad beating him in November - but let’s send a message TODAY. 👊
Follow & RT to help us beat him in followers (18,000)! 🙌
A list of things I have done on an aircraft carrier:
-Madden '14
-HALO
-Foc'sle Follies
-Drank half a bottle of ghost pepper hot sauce
-Bought a caramel macchiato
-Actual combat operations
-Gotten yelled at by the air boss
-Drank warm beer on the flight deck
-Ran on the same
A tale of two different futures today in Upstate New York:
-In Syracuse, a city of 140,000, 40 people showed up for a pro-Trump rally
-In Pulaski, a small town of 2,000, 50 people showed up for an anti-hate/pro-Biden rally.
America is ready for change.
#Election2020
Dan, as a proud New Yorker, a National Guard and LEO family member, and your former Harvard classmate: nobody here asked for your opinion.
How’s Houston? Seems the only one paying it much attention these days is
@SimaforTX
.
NYC is in ruins and you do nothing. NYPD has been shot at and run over with vehicles. They’re being overrun by a mob that you have no interest in stopping.
Call in the national guard, now.
Of course that's your contention. You're a plebe at Annapolis. You just got finished reading Mahan, probably the Discussion of the Elements of Sea Power. You’re gonna be convinced that a concentration of powerful ships in home waters and minimal power projection…
You don’t need to have a daughter, a wife, a sister, or a mother to believe in reproductive freedom and abortion rights.
If any woman - anywhere - isn’t free and equal under the Constitution, then no man is.
#WhiteDudesForKamala
Can I be real a second?
I struggle on
#VeteransDay
.
I grapple with what my service really means and don't feel worthy of the adulation heaped on this day or any other.
Serving you was a job. You paid me well to do it.
Want to thank me for my service? Elect good government.
The inability for some folks to understand what OEF is - and that tens of thousands of servicemembers supported it from outside of Afghanistan - is a commentary on how little the American public supported or understood our presence there.
That’s not on Gov Walz - that’s on you.
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States..."
@RepJohnKatko
has failed that oath. In Congress, I will not.
On the eve of history last night in Syracuse, we sent him a message. Watch:
#NY24
#ImpeachmentDay
👋I’m a rural, progressive military veteran & dad
🤚I’m not taking corporate PAC, fossil fuel, or Big Pharma money
👊I’m fighting for antitrust, single-payer healthcare, & climate justice
🤝So I need you! Click here to pitch in:
👇And RT! 🙌
#NY24
Here's the issue with trying to equate Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Greene:
@AOC
wants you to have healthcare, a good-paying job, and a livable planet.
@mtgreenee
wants you to know she has a gun.
🤷♂️
This nation owes a debt to National Guard veterans - like Walz, my dad, +
@BenTupper8
- who uprooted their lives after 9/11 to make OEF possible.
Guard service is not a political punchline. Especially to support a multi-time draft dodger.
Keep their service out of your mouth.
Don’t like masks? Don’t wear one.
Don’t like drag shows? Don’t go to one.
Don’t like abortions? Don’t have one.
Get your personal preferences the hell out of our laws.
New from ballot observing:
This Republican lawyer from Albany has objected to 25 of the first 100 ballots in our election district for “signature.”
The difference? I KNOW THESE PEOPLE because I live here and they are my neighbors.
Same dirty GOP voter suppression tricks. 🙄
What’s more, there would be no OEF without Gov Walz, me, and the thousands of servicemembers who supported the effort from ships and bases all over the CENTCOM, INDOPACOM, and EUCOM AORs.
To suggest otherwise is wrong and troublingly ignorant about military readiness.
Just finished my
#RunWithMaud
.
As a white man, I didn’t have to worry about somebody pulling a gun on me. That’s privilege in America today.
A human being is a human being. Skin tone doesn’t change that.
Stop. Killing. Black. People.
#IRunWithMaud
#AhamaudArbery
“Our guys are very experienced. We have active-duty law enforcement in our organization that are helping to train us. We can blend in with our law enforcement,” says a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group.
I'm a vet. I was a candidate for Congress. I work every day to support veteran candidates. I'm no stranger to politics.
But I'm here in my kitchen, kids and wife asleep upstairs, and I'm thinking about the people I know buried in Arlington and in watery graves around the world.
🚨 🚨 🚨 This is a MAJOR national security disaster-waiting-to-happen that opens the door for unprecedented foreign influence in American elections. It is WRONG on every level - Congress must act NOW to prevent further destruction of our democratic institutions! 🚨 🚨 🚨
NEW: The FEC has ruled foreign donors can finance U.S. referendum campaigns, opening the door to foreign spending on fights over high-profile policy issues, Axios has learned.
New from ballot observing:
This Republican lawyer from Albany has objected to 25 of the first 100 ballots in our election district for “signature.”
The difference? I KNOW THESE PEOPLE because I live here and they are my neighbors.
Same dirty GOP voter suppression tricks. 🙄
☕️ Good morning! ☕️
Devin Nunes is coming to town this weekend for a $1,000/plate fundraiser for my opponent, the spineless, Trump-endorsing
@RepJohnKatko
.
Help us fight the 💰. Show you’re on our side: let’s get 100 people to chip in $10 today!
#NY24
This was crazy.
I’m astounded by how many objections to legally cast ballots were made by GOP lawyers. I’m glad I could save a few dozen military absentee votes today, but Republicans really do relish in destroying your ballot after it has been cast.
Stunning.
I’m a ballot observer at a table with a Republican lawyer who is objecting to ALL military absentee ballots to keep them from being counted.
Absolutely sickening.
"Veterans throughout the country are urgently asking for your help. We appreciate your thanks for our service in the past. Now, in the present, join us together in one last act of service as we save the lives of our Afghan allies."
#EvacuateAfghans
Running while white and running while black are two very different things.
Today,
#IRunWithMaud
- because that’s bullshit and it needs to change.
#AhamaudArbery
It took 36 days to determine the 2000 election. That delay in starting the presidential transition was cited in the 9/11 Report as a causal factor in the failure to prevent the worst terrorist attack on US soil in history.
What Trump is doing now is a national security threat.
I'm a veteran who ran for Congress and helped lead a political action committee to elect more veterans to Congress.
So I believe I can speak with some authority when I say, especially to veterans:
Don't run for Congress. (1/10)
The most humbling thing about this tweet are the hundreds of
#veterans
who have commented or RTed their stories about voting-by-mail overseas or on deployment.
From Vietnam to Iraq to the depths of the sea, thank you all so much for your service & dedicated citizenship. 🤟
Like every occupation, the military has some bad people who reliably do the wrong thing.
Sometimes, they lie their way to Congress.
One of them is Dan Crenshaw.
The Navy has seen fit to select me for promotion to Commander (O-5).
Such an unbelievable honor to serve and lead with America’s sons and daughters in the greatest Navy in the history of the universe. We’re ready to continue making a difference.
I served and fought and sacrificed for this country.
I am angry.
Terrorists occupied the US Capitol by force today. This treasonous act must be stopped, and accountability must begin with the immediate impeachment and removal of Donald Trump for failing to protect our country.
The fact that you served in uniform is not a get-out-of-citizenship free card.
It doesn’t absolve you from evil, crime, or attacking your fellow vets after you hang up the fatigues.
You still need to live the values of honorable service every day - even after your discharge.
Some professional news:
I am the new Executive Director of Taking the Hill. Our mission is the same: elect more veterans & military family members of integrity to Congress.
The only change? Now *I* get to color-code the spreadsheets. 😎
#ElectMoreVets
@TTHpac
@PatrickMurphyPA
@RabbiShmuley
@CoryBooker
With respect, Rabbi, nobody voted to give $150 billion to anyone.
And if the Senator truly is your friend, speak with him like a friend. Don't do this on Twitter to drive clicks and engagement. It's a cheap appropriation of the real tragedy that is ongoing.
When all is said and done, this is how the history books will rank the best midterm performance by a first-term president in the modern era:
1. George W. Bush (post-9/11 midterms)
2. John F. Kennedy
3. Joseph R. Biden
🧵 I have a rule in life:
Don’t publicly attack Gold Star families.
Ever.
Even when you disagree with them politically.
They have more than earned the right to make choices, process emotions, and live with their loss as they see fit. Even if it means politicizing that loss.
Why do Republicans like
@TedCruz
speak so fondly of the Election of 1876? Because it is the singular event that birthed the Jim Crow South - it is the America they mean when they say "great again." I wrote about it here:
So many of us veterans struggle with our service precisely because we left too many friends behind.
For
@realDonaldTrump
to call them “losers” and “suckers” is treason to both the living and the dead.
Mr. Trump, know this: we will defend the fallen and you will know our wrath.
8 years ago, I was deployed on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf when
#DADT
was repealed.
Republicans predicted the “end of the military as we know it.”
Know what happened instead?
We just did our f*cking jobs.
Except nobody had to lie about who they were anymore.
#NY24
Yet another reason why we must restore the Voting Rights Act. Some lawyer huddled over a desk, paid for by a political party or campaign, should not have the power to prevent your vote from counting. Voters deserve agency in this process - it is our right.
Texas can reject mail-in ballots over mismatched signatures without giving voters a chance to appeal, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
Also, if you’re not following my friend and the next Congresswoman from
#NY24
,
@dana_balter
, do that and chip in $5 for her, too. She’s a champion for voting rights, veterans, and people:
The fact that you served in uniform is not a get-out-of-citizenship free card.
It doesn’t absolve you from evil, crime, or attacking your fellow vets after you hang up the fatigues.
You still need to live the values of honorable service every day - even after your discharge.
…before embarking on the vainglorious attempt to become a member of the House of Representatives or Senate.
Veterans, I'm not saying that you should never run for Congress. I'm saying that our nation needs you in so many more ways and in so many different places first. (10/10)
When somebody says, "Thank you for your service!" I usually reply with, "Thank you for paying your taxes!"
I find it helps me accept my time in uniform to think of myself not as part of some exclusive, praiseworthy club, but as part of a national effort we all participate in.
@lawler4ny
Absolutely classless.
Enjoy freshman orientation.
#NY17
will be sending a new rep to it next cycle. One who knows that real winners - real leaders, real men - don’t punch down.
Before we run to represent people, we need to spend some time understanding the different lived experiences of those around us.
So veterans, don't run for Congress.
At least not right away.
First, be a volunteer. Be a PTA member. Be a youth sports coach. (8/10)
The big loser tonight?
@EliseStefanik
.
Her hand-picked candidates in
#NY23
and
#NY22
get embarrassed badly. And now she’s got CIA vet
@CastelliMatt
to contend with, and my friend Matt will not be an easy out this November.
#NY21
But if our divided politics can teach us anything, it is that we can’t continue to widen the chasm between federal + local. When we treat federal office like a promotion while considering city, town, and school offices like a demotion, this is exactly what we are doing. (4/10)
It’s not a fucking rap battle.
One guy is a felon who tried to sack the capital. The other guy is not.
One guy wants to put women in jail for having sex. The other guy does not.
One guy wants to destroy American democracy. The other guy does not.
There is no spin. Get real.
It’s incredible that so many self-styled “patriots” openly disparage American athletes and teams that speak up for equality on the world stage.
But of course, for them, America has never been about freedom.
It’s about chattel patriotism - the need to own people and narratives.
…in distant seas is the only rational and sustainable way to maintain a Navy. You’re gonna be convinced of that til next month when you get to the Great White Fleet, and then you’re gonna be talkin’ all “speak softly and carry a big stick” assuming Roosevelt meant for the Navy..
Liberty and justice are not certainties. We cannot take them for granted.
When your elected representative fails to display the courage required to stand up for them, VOTE THEM OUT.
After you’ve clicked follow & RT, I’d be honored if you clicked here to chip in $5 or more:
I am running in a majority-rural, D+3 district that still has an R incumbent & has never elected someone rural like me to Congress before.
Help us make history!
Life in uniform is hard, but it is laid out for us: universal healthcare, job guarantee, reliable pay, housing allowance, travel.
Life outside of uniform is hard, too, and can't be generalized or easily assumed. It takes time and effort and BEING THERE to grasp. (7/10)
Get to your town or city council meetings. Get to know the people who own the businesses, staff the hospitals, and care for our kids in town. Try to solve the problems that you can by being a good citizen and a good neighbor first… (9/10)
—it drastically underestimates the impact of maneuverability on sea control. You got that from Beatty, right? Yeah, I read his criticism of Jellicoe, too. Were you gonna plagiarize the whole thing for us? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter? Or is that your thing?
A reminder as Virginia removes its Robert E Lee monument today: In 1859 Virginia executed abolitionist John Brown for the crime of treason b/c he freed slaves. Yes, the first American executed for treason was b/c he freed slaves.
Brown deserves the monument—A true American hero.
You come into the Federal House. You order a ginger ale. You read some obscure passage from a chapter they didn’t assign you to read in American Naval Heritage and then pretend…you pawn it off as your own idea just to impress some townies and embarrass Group 3 majors?
And worse, when we use our departure from service to cash in with disinformation entities that dishonor our country by further dividing Americans, we are making ourselves a selfish addition to our nation's problems instead of a humble stitch in the fabric of a solution. (5/10)
What does the Presidential Election of 1876 have to do with
#BlackLivesMatter
protests - and what does it mean for this moment in American history?
Buckle up: it’s a
#thread
about corruption, Rutherford B. Hayes, and why this country remains unequal. (1/16)
…to be the stick. That’s gonna last until next year - you’re gonna be in here regurgitating tropes about gun power and, you know, the necessity of the battleship on naval supremacy.
One of the things I learned running for Congress - and helping others do the same - is how profoundly little I truly understood about how life actually works for different people from different city blocks, suburbs, and neighborhoods. (6/10)
See the sad thing about you is in 20 years you're gonna be in command at sea and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One: don't do that. And two: You spent six bucks on that ginger ale you coulda' got for free at your sponsor’s house.
Yesterday,
@RepJohnKatko
& the
@NRCC
thought it was cool to call veterans like me “cowardly.”
Today, they say it doesn’t count because “it was only in the subject line of the email.”
Let’s show them that it does. Chip in $5 now so we can beat ‘em:
#NY24
We can have policy debates about DoD funding and "supporting the troops."
But there is no policy debate about honoring my dead friends and our Gold Star families. There is no political positioning. You are either good, or you are evil.
Donald Trump shows us what he truly is.
I’m a ballot observer at a table with a Republican lawyer who is objecting to ALL military absentee ballots to keep them from being counted.
Absolutely sickening.
Come for the pedantic takes on naval matters, stay for the paternalistic takes on how you won’t be happy without a husband. 🙄
This is creepy and gross. Sadly, it’s been his shtick for a long time, but people who pretend to be serious still follow him.
I grew up Catholic.
People like
@realDonaldTrump
are why I am hesitant to introduce my family to the faith. He acts pious on Sunday but unholy as hell Friday to Saturday.
@JoeBiden
? He restores my faith. That’s not a prerequisite for the presidency, but it means a lot to me.