Alek Skarlatos is a glutton for punishment apparently.
After the Oregon Republican lost his first bid for Congress in 2020, he signed up for another run, this time in an open 4th Congressional District. The seat, newly configured after decennial redistricting, occupies much of Oregon’s scenic Pacific coastline and evergreen forestland and was drawn to elect Democrats. But with the experience of one campaign under his belt and a national political environment that could fuel a Republican wave in November, Skarlatos is projecting confidence that 2022 is his year.
“This cycle, it’s very different. It’s different running as a second-time candidate,” Skarlatos, 29, told the Washington Examiner in a telephone interview. “I feel like I know what I’m doing a lot better. And we have Joe Biden in the White House.”
Before his maiden House run in 2020, Skarlatos achieved some measure of notoriety for his role in thwarting a jihadi terrorist attack on a high-speed European train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. Skarlatos, who had served in the Army National Guard, was on vacation with buddies Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler and traveling on the train when they acted with three other passengers to subdue a gunman. A few years later, Clint Eastwood produced and directed a feature film about the exploit, The 15:17 to Paris, and cast Skarlatos, Stone, and Sadler as themselves.
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In 2020, Skarlatos lost to Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, 51.5% to 46.2%. Even though the 4th District as it was redrawn is more favorable to the Democrats than it was previously, Skarlatos is confident in part because DeFazio, in office since 1987, is retiring.
The Washington Examiner’s conversation with Skarlatos unfolded quite differently than others with Republicans running for Congress this year. Most GOP hopefuls tend to raise concerns about Democratic leadership in Washington and focus on opposing Biden’s agenda. To be sure, Skarlatos did his fair share of that, saying when asked why he is running for the House again that “there’s just so much going on in the country right now I couldn’t exactly sit out.” Referring to “the way Joe Biden has handled everything,” especially inflation, Skarlatos said, “I felt like I had to run.”
But Skarlatos otherwise shied away from discussing politically charged cultural topics that tend to receive attention in the national media.
Instead, Skarlatos said he was running to address the unique challenges facing residents of Oregon’s 4th District. The Republican said he hopes to work on legislation to boost the region’s fishing industry and modernize the shipping port at Coos Bay, the largest deep-water port between San Francisco and Seattle. Skarlatos also discussed in depth the complicated problem of reforming how Washington manages federal forest land in Oregon to improve the financial stability of county governments in the 4th District that rely on timber harvesting for a significant portion of their revenue.
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“I’m running for Congress because of the local issues we’re dealing with here in the 4th,” he said.
