Peace Through Strength

Keeping America Strong, Secure, and Ready

I graduated from the United States Naval Academy, served eleven years in the Navy, and deployed overseas three times as a Surface Warfare Officer. I later served on the House Armed Services Committee and now serve on the Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for funding military construction and Veterans programs.

Those experiences shaped a simple view of national defense: America should have the strongest, most lethal military in the world—not because we seek war, but because strength is the best way to deter it.

Building the World’s Most Lethal Fighting Force

As a Tactical Action Officer aboard a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, I was entrusted with weapons-release authority to defend the ship and 5,000 American lives. I understand the enormous responsibility we place on our Service Members—and what Congress owes them in return.

That means properly staffing, equipping, training, and leading our military. It means investing in ships, submarines, munitions, drones, unmanned systems, advanced technology, and the American industrial base needed to produce them. And it means promotions and military decisions based on merit, performance, readiness, and lethality—not DEI mandates or political agendas.

My commitment is also personal. My stepfather served in the Navy, and my brother, a decorated Marine sniper, earned the Bronze Star with Valor for his service in Fallujah. I’m so proud of our military and its mission that I would encourage my own daughters to enlist. Congress must ensure every parent can have that same confidence in the leadership, training, and resources protecting their child.

In Congress, I have worked to:

  • Deliver historic pay raises for our Troops while improving military housing, childcare, and support for their families;

  • Fight for cost-of-living relief for Coast Guard members stationed in expensive communities like the Hamptons;

  • Modernize our military with advanced weapons, drones, unmanned systems, ships, submarines, and stronger domestic supply chains; and

  • Keep woke politics out of the military and restore a relentless focus on merit, performance, and mission readiness.

Peace Through Strength

Weakness invites aggression. Under the Biden Administration, America projected weakness while too many of our allies underinvested in their own defense. Russia invaded Ukraine, Iran and its terrorist proxies attacked American forces and international shipping, and Hamas carried out the October 7th massacre in Israel.

President Trump was right to demand that our allies carry more of the burden. America should lead the free world, but American taxpayers should not be expected to shoulder its defense alone. NATO allies have now committed to dramatically increasing defense investment, strengthening the alliance while allowing America greater flexibility over our own defense resources.

Supporting Our Allies, Protecting America

America is safer when capable allies can confront shared adversaries before American Troops have to.

I have supported accountable security assistance to help Israel defeat terrorist threats, Ukraine resist Putin’s aggression, and our Indo-Pacific partners deter China—while replenishing American stockpiles, expanding U.S. weapons production, and strengthening the supply chains our own military depends on.

But American strength must be matched by judgment.

The Powell Doctrine guides my approach: military force should be used when a vital national interest is at stake, nonmilitary options have been exhausted, and our objective and exit strategy are clear.

That means preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon without putting American boots on the ground, seeking an end to the war in Ukraine without stumbling into direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia, and building overwhelming strength in the Indo-Pacific to deter China rather than unnecessarily provoking a war.

Strength With Restraint

Peace through strength means having the military and economic power to deter our adversaries—and the judgment to know when to use it.

I know from experience that decisions made in Washington ultimately fall on young Americans in uniform to carry out. Before sending them into harm’s way, our leaders owe them a vital national interest, a clear mission, the resources to win, and a plan to bring them home.

America should never seek war—but we must always be prepared to win one.

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