Double Amputee Veteran Rob Jones, a Republican from Middleburg, Virginia, announced Monday that he will challenge Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District seat.
According to his campaign video, Jones is running for Congress because it is a “partisan warzone” that empowers “political extremists on both sides” of the aisle.
“Politicians like Jennifer Wexton are part of the problem,” Jones said in a campaign announcement video. “They put political self-interest before the national interest—afraid of losing re-election—but I’d rather lose two legs than lose the country that we love because this isn’t about me, this is about us.”
“The biggest challenge, if I get elected, is going to be forming the relationships that I need to be able to form in order to have positive effects on Congress,” Jones told Breitbart News in a phone interview.
Jones said he looks forward to talking with members from both sides of the aisle and believes he will be able to “make friends” by “dedicating himself to it” much like he did when he served in the Marine Corps. Jones insisted that he “will not give up until I accomplish my mission.”
“The most pressing issue [we face] is that we have people in our government that are not cooperating with each other and they’re demonizing each other,” Jones said. “They’re dividing along party lines all the time and people don’t want to compromise. … They just want their team to win.”
“Our country is about compromise,” Jones added. “Due to this problem, we are not getting anything done. We are not able to pass bills, or legislation, that’s going to have any positive effect on anybody’s lives. The American people are being left in the lurch.”
Jones also pointed to Wexton’s voting record, which almost always falls in line with the “extreme left.”
“She ran as a moderate Democrat,” Jones said of Wexton. “Now she has turned around and votes with more of the extreme left, 93 percent of the time, with Congresswoman [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez.”
Jones also said he believes Wexton does not possess an “effective” leadership style.
“I went to one of her town halls and in the town hall she was talking about how they passed meaningful bills in the House of Representatives but then they passed it on to the Senate and it doesn’t get passed because they don’t put it on the floor,” Jones stated. “She says that’s their fault, that’s on them.”
“To my estimation, that’s not what a leader does,” Jones added. “A leader takes full responsibility for everything in their purview and getting bills passed is under the purview of a representative.”
Jones says members of Congress must “work to change tactics” when bills passed in the House are not picked up by the Senate.
From 1981 until 2019, Virginia’s 10th Congressional District seat had been held by two different Republicans, Frank R. Wolf from 1981 until 2015 and Barbara Comstock from 2015 until 2019. Wexton defeated Comstock in the 2018 general election and took office in 2019.
“Getting this seat back will help to restore majority [in the House],” Jones said.
Jones is a native of Loudon County. He graduated from Loudoun Valley High School in 2003 and attended college at Virginia Tech where he graduated in 2007.
During his junior year at Virginia Tech, Rob joined the Marine Corps Reserve as a combat engineer stationed in Roanoke, Virginia.
According to his campaign announcement, Jones deployed to Iraq in 2008, and “he went to Afghanistan in 2010, where he was tasked with plotting safe routes through areas suspected of containing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to his campaign website. In Afghanistan, he stepped on an IED in Taliban territory that resulted in double above-knee amputations. He was honorably discharged in 2011.”
For his many achievements and service to the nation, Jones has received several awards, including the Purple Heart Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Operation Enduring Freedom Campaign Medal, and the Operation Iraqi Freedom Campaign Medal.
Rob now lives with his wife Pam in Middleburg where they have a small vegetable farm.
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