Mike Durant, Republican candidate in Alabama’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, recently joined the “Jocko Podcast” for a wide-ranging interview.
During the interview, Durant touched on his military service and detailed how his being held a prisoner of war while on mission in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu served as the inspiration for the film “Black Hawk Down.”
Durant also spoke to his business record as a defense contractor and outlined some of the core tenets of his candidacy.
When asked how he came to make the decision to run for the Senate, Durant advised that he was urged to launch a bid due to what he referred to as his “real-world experience.”
“I was asked to consider it. The reason I was asked to consider it was because I do have that real world experience. And I have, it has to be dusted off a little bit, but I have name recognition,” asserted Durant. “There’s a lot of veterans in Alabama, there’s a lot of people that are going to remember the story, there’s a huge aviation presence. … And having that resume plus the business resume is a real — it’s very very appealing to the Alabama voter.”
The first-time candidate suggested that the voting base longed for political outsiders, pointing to the electoral successes of U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin (R-VA).
“The fact that I’m not a career politician — people are looking for a different answer,” he continued. “You look at Glenn Youngkin. You know, a big part of why he won is because he’s a fresh face with a new idea and real world experience. It’s the same thing. Tommy Tuberville, our current senator who I would serve with… it’s the same thing. Never been a politician before… But I’ve met with him, he’s doing an awesome job. He really works hard to understand the process and he cares about the state.”
Durant added, “You know, that’s what it should be all about. It shouldn’t be about trying to further your own political career. It should be ‘I’m here to serve the people of Alabama and the nation’… The things that you vote on matter across the board. I think that we have to have people there that have integrity and are there for the right reasons, and that’s why I’m doing it.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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