Eli Crane, a Chris Kyle protégé, enters Arizona politics

FPI / July 21, 2021

Eli Crane, a former Navy SEAL and protégé of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle has announced he will run as a Republican in the 2022 midterms in Arizona's 1st Congressional District.

“I'm very, very concerned about the current state of this country and the direction that this country is headed,” Crane told Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard. “I got a chance and an opportunity to live the American dream. And I want to make sure that the following generations are as blessed as I have been,” added the conservative Republican.

Crane, who trained as a Navy SEALs sniper with Kyle for two years, said on Tuesday that he will challenge Democrat incumbent Rep. Tom O’Halleran.

“I think I'm gonna be able to make this a national race,” said Crane, who said that he will focus his campaign in large part on Team Biden's open border policies, the push from the Left for critical race theory in schools, and election security issues highlighted by the Arizona audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

Crane joined the Navy days after the terrorist attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

Crane, who was also a "Shark Tank" contestant backed by billionaire Mark Cuban, added: “I noticed how few people with influence are willing to talk about things that matter, and it seems like everybody that has a company or a platform, especially in the day and age of ‘cancel culture,’ is unwilling to do so. And so, I started thinking to myself, wait a minute, if I fought for this country and I was willing to die for it, and the biggest threat to our country is within, why shouldn't I speak up about it?”



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