The chair of Sussex County’s GOP asked Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) to reconsider her defense of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record in a letter to her campaign.
Joe Labarbera, a former Marine and the chairman of the Sussex Republican Committee, wrote in a letter that he believes Walz retired after 24 years in the National Guard to avoid combat.
Walz never served in combat and has faced accusations of misrepresenting his military record from prominent Republicans, including vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Sherrill, who defended Walz from the GOP attacks earlier this month, is a former Navy helicopter pilot who called criticisms of Walz’s record offensive.
But Labarbera, who said he’s served 54 months in combat, said he and other combat veterans believe the service of a peacetime guardsman should not be equated with the sacrifice of veterans who fought.
“As combat vets, we feel marginalized and disrespected when a peacetime guardsman who could have joined our back-to-back tours and our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan is put in our same category,” he wrote in the letter. “Those who deployed in this longest war in American history did so for most of their youthful lives.”
In her defenses of Walz, Sherrill acknowledged that Walz did not serve in combat. Still, she insisted that military service comes in many different forms, which she said is something veterans themselves recognize.
“To come at him and suggest that his service wasn’t honorable, or that despite all the records to the contrary he somehow left his troops wanting leadership — it’s just ridiculous,” Sherrill said.
Labarbera also criticized heavily scrutinized moments in which Walz may have allowed people to assume he served in combat: “Walz’s inferences that he actually fought are very offensive to those of us who did.”
The Sussex GOP chair asked Sherrill a series of questions about President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan during a town hall last Thursday and thanked her for her answers. But now, he’s hoping she will distance herself from Walz after he defense of the governor.
“He should not be an example to our young Soldiers.”