Former U.S. Navy SEALs fared well in midterm contests Tuesday night.
Republican Derrick Van Orden, a retired SEAL, won Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District over Democratic candidate Brad Pfaff, flipping the seat from blue to red for the first time in 26 years, according to Fox News.
The seat in the rural western part of the state was left open when 13-term Democratic Rep. Ron Kind did not seek re-election.
Van Orden won the race with 52 percent of the vote to Pfaff’s 48 percent.
The Navy veteran had five combat deployments during his 26 years of military service, including to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to his campaign website.
Gratitude https://t.co/nQISrCTeju
— Derrick Van Orden (@derrickvanorden) November 9, 2022
Van Orden came up a little short in 2020 when he ran against Kind, losing by less than 3 percentage points.
The former SEAL made headlines last month when he said at a local prayer breakfast, “There’s not a single God-fearing Christian that is a leftist, because those two things are incompatible.”
He added that a lot of leftists “just don’t” love this country.
GOP nominee for Wisconsin’s 3rd District Derrick Van Orden said at a local prayer breakfast that “we need to… quit pretending that [leftists] love this country.”
“There’s not a single God-fearing Christian that is a leftist, because those two things are incompatible.” pic.twitter.com/v62hVTEDGQ
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) October 27, 2022
Former Navy SEAL Eli Crane flipped Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District defeating incumbent Democrat Tom O’Halleran. The 2nd includes the cities of Prescott and Flagstaff, Arizona, and extends to the state’s borders with New Mexico and Utah.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Crane took 53.6 percent of the vote to O’Halleran’s 46.4 percent, according to The New York Times.
The veteran’s campaign website stated he served in five overseas deployments and describes him as “faith-oriented, family man and is pro-life, pro-second amendment, and unafraid to take a stand against cancel culture and the radical left.”
FLIP ALERT: Navy Seal Veteran — Eli Crane (R) defeats Tom O’Halleran (D-inc) in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District
⦿ This seat is flipped from 🔵➡️🔴 pic.twitter.com/UjMVdoK6yR
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) November 9, 2022
At an election-eve GOP campaign rally in Prescott, Crane said, “I love this country, and I want to make sure my that daughters get to grow up with the same amount of freedoms and opportunities that you and I did.”
Yavapai Courthouse Rally in Prescott with the entire Republican ticket. This has been an unbelievable journey meeting people across this great state. We’re going to win tomorrow. @RepGosar @KariLake @bgmasters @AbrahamHamadeh @RealMarkFinchem pic.twitter.com/f8cAmcJfrX
— Eli Crane (@EliCrane_CEO) November 8, 2022
Finally, former U.S. Navy Seal Ryan Zinke was ahead in his race against Democrat Monica Tranel to represent Montana’s 1st Congressional District, by close to five percentage points as of Wednesday afternoon.
Zinke served in Congress from 2015 to 2017 before joining the Trump administration as secretary of the interior.
Zinke served 23 years in the military and deploying to Iraq, where he led a force of 3,500 Special Operations personnel, according to his campaign website.
