GOP support is growing for a House candidate with a disputed military record
JR Majewski, a Trump acolyte from Ohio who was abandoned by Republicans in the House of Representatives when he ran for Congress for the first time in the 2022 midterm elections after discrepancies in his military record came forward is back as a candidate – and with a number of prominent Republican names behind him.
Mr. Majewski, an Air Force veteran, collected the letters of support on Monday Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Frank LaRosethe Ohio secretary of state, in his Republican primary, as he looks to challenge Democrat Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat, for a second time in the Ninth District.
The show of support was in stark contrast to the National Republican Congressional Committee canceling its ads for Mr. Majewski during the final six weeks of his 2022 race, which he lost by 13 percentage points to Ms. Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in congressional history.
The committee then pulled the plug The Associated Press reported that the Air Force had no record of Mr. Majewski, 44, serving in Afghanistan, which he continues to claim he did, and drew attention to a series of inconsistencies about his military record. Mr Majewski has vehemently disputed the reporting.
The endorsements came just days after the release of a secret recording of Craig Riedel, a rival Republican candidate and former state lawmaker, telling a Republican donor that he would not support former President Donald J. Trump and did not want his endorsement. It was obtained by Charlie Kirkthe founder of Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump grassroots group.
Not long after, Mr. Riedel announced that he supported Mr. Trump. But the damage seemed already done: At least one prominent Ohio Republican (Rep. Max Miller, a former Trump adviser) said he no longer supported Mr. Riedelwho lost to Mr. Majewski in the 2022 Republican primary.
Mr. Riedel accused one of Mr. Majewski’s top MAGA boosters, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, of setting him up.
“Matt Gaetz and a social media impostor pulled off a stunt yesterday to convince President Trump to get involved in my congressional primary for proven loser JR Majewski,” Mr. Riedel wrote on X.
Mr Trump, who endorsed Mr Majewski in 2022, announced him Saturday while both attended a New York Young Republican Club gala, blaming the “deep state” for undermining Mr. Majewski during his last run.
“We stuck with him,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “They played dirty pool, but you get a second chance, right?”
Erica Knight, a spokeswoman for Mr. Majewski, said in a text message that he expected to be endorsed again by Mr. Trump.
A campaign spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Riedel has received support from Republicans considered more mainstream, including Representative Kevin McCarthy, before he was ousted as speaker of the House of Representatives, and Americans for Prosperity Action, a political network founded by billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. The group spent nearly $250,000 on Mr. Riedel’s behalf during this election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Riedel did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to The New York Times on Tuesday, Mr. Gaetz denied that he orchestrated the secret recording.
“Craig Riedel trashed Trump when he thought it would help him get a New Yorker to give him money,” he said. “We already have enough people willing to say and do anything for campaign money in Congress. Craig Riedel exposed himself in his own words. I had nothing to do with it, even if I wanted to.”
Aidan Johnson, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called the Republican primary in a statement an “ugly and expensive race to the bottom.”
Steve Lankenau, former mayor of Napoleon, Ohio, is also running in the Republican primary.
While Mr. Majewski has frequently promoted himself as a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Air Force records obtained by The Times show that he was deployed to Qatar for six months in 2002, which is now his home port. to the largest American air base in the Middle East.
According to military records, the Air Force demoted Mr. Majewski in September 2001 for driving drunk at Kadena Air Base in Japan, contradicting his earlier story that he could not re-enlist in the Air Force after his first four years because of a ‘brawl’. .”
The inconsistencies in Mr. Majewski’s public accounts of his military service drew renewed scrutiny during the last election cycle, when he was already facing questions about his presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and sympathies for the QAnon conspiracy movement.
In August 2023, more than nine months after Mr. Majewski’s defeat, the Army updated his records to reflect that he had been awarded the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for his service, an honor established in 2003 for members of the air force that was deployed abroad after the war. September 11 attacks.
But Afghanistan is just one of dozens of countries, including Qatar, that count toward eligibility. That has not stopped Mr Majewski and his allies, including Mr Trump, from claiming he had been “completely exonerated”.