Congress has a long tradition of attracting military veterans to its ranks.
Kelly Cooper, 47, is that — he served in the Marines in the 1990s. But the Republican’s maiden run for office is an outgrowth of experience of a different kind: his struggle to survive, financially, and support his family as the owner/operator of three restaurants in suburban Phoenix throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Cooper, married with two children, entered the race for the GOP nomination in Arizona’s 4th Congressional District after deciding he was fed up with government health regulations that forced him essentially to shut down his restaurants, jeopardizing his livelihood and that of the approximately 75 to 100 employees he was forced to lay off. Cooper managed to stay afloat by keeping his chef on the payroll and dishing out as many to-go orders as he could manage. But it was just that, he emphasized: staying “afloat.”
JD VANCE BETS OHIO GOP SENATE BID ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
“Bureaucratic red tape and the oppressive assault on my small business require me to run,” Cooper told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “To me, there’s no excuse for what went on during COVID.”
But Cooper is not a single-issue candidate.
Despite entering the political arena driven by a specific, historic, and traumatic experience with the pandemic, the platform that he is running on, and the positions he is taking, are boilerplate Republican and are consistent with the issues being promoted by GOP congressional contenders across the country. Cooper’s No. 1 priority is the economy and the rising inflation taking a big bite out of voters’ paychecks. He is concerned about China, believes in “education freedom” for parents of school-age children, hopes to increase domestic energy exploration, and wants to choke off the illegal immigration at the southern border that is causing border states like Arizona so many problems.
“It’s not just an Arizona problem, it’s a national problem, and we’re literally head-in-the-sand as a government,” Cooper said. “We can do better; we can make better decisions, but we’re choosing not to.”
“I advocate for school choice not because pub schools are necessarily evil but because choice and competition breed excellence and success,” he added. “My kids deserve a better future.”
The newly configured 4th Congressional District is a swing seat, and Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton is running for reelection.
In other words, the general election is no sure thing for the eventual Republican nominee. And for Cooper to emerge the nominee, he is going to have to fend off at least three other Republicans in the Aug. 2 primary, among them business consultant Dave Giles, securities trader Alex Stovall, and attorney Tanya Wheeless.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
But in an election cycle developing as a GOP wave, a district redrawn to give Democrats the slightest of edges — it’s officially a D+1 — is exactly the sort of district that can change hands. And that could prove promising for Cooper.
