Eli Crane, a former U.S. Navy Seal who enlisted in the military a week after 9/11, announced his bid for Congress in Arizona’s first congressional district yesterday. He looks to beat out Tom O’Halleran, a former Republican turned independent now Democrat, who had an ethics complaint filed against him last March for allegedly misusing government resources.
JOIN ME! https://t.co/DzCWQrOF2g pic.twitter.com/A7fgM8xn0C
— Eli Crane for Congress (@EliCraneAZ) July 20, 2021
Crane spoke with Townhall and shared his thoughts about his campaign and the current challenges the country is facing. His core message for voters is that the purpose of government is no longer what it once was.
“When you read the Declaration of Independence, it makes it really clear that the government's role is to protect our God-given inalienable rights.” But to him, that’s not happening anymore," he told Townhall in an interview. "That’s why Washington needs fighters with courage and character."
The most important issues for Crane are ensuring election integrity, defending the border, and defeating critical race theory.
“Right now the most important issue to me is election integrity," he said, adding that “Border security here in Arizona is vital. We have massive problems at our border and an administration that is not taking it seriously.”
Critical race theory is also a key issue for Crane, who sees it as something being propagated throughout America’s culture, institutions, and government. “If we don’t boot this stuff out quickly, the enemy will do exactly what they're trying to do and that's divide and conquer this nation and everything we stand for.”
The very first step the country must take is “roll up the red carpet that’s been rolled out by the Biden administration,” he continued.
On border security, Crane said that we need to "allow our law enforcement officers to enforce the laws that are already on the books and allow border patrol, and ICE, and the sheriffs, and the local police departments to do their job.” This includes finishing the border wall Trump started. "We need to go back to Trump's border security policies, because it wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot better than what it is today.”
Having served five war time deployments spanning 13 years in the Middle East, Crane argued that Israel needs continued support from the United States. “I always have been and I always will be an extremely strong supporter of Israel. I think that we should protect Israel,” he said.
The America-First congressional candidates believes Big Tech must be reigned in, because “they’ve become much too powerful and much too willing to censor and infringe on free speech."
“Traditionally, conservatives have fought off of their back foot,” he said, commenting on the general attitude of the Republican party. “Far too often, Republicans and conservatives wait until something becomes such a blaring, alarming issue that it's hard to do anything about it. We need leadership that understands how to be proactive and fight off the front foot.”
Crane must first defeat two other Republicans who have already declared candidacy for that seat before the general election in November 2022.