Democrat – Challenger
Endorsed for U.S. Senate by Council for a Livable World Candidate Fund
In 2010, U.S. Representative and three-star Navy Admiral Joe Sestak ran for Senate in Pennsylvania and fell just short of being elected in a bad year for Democrats.
Now Sestak is running again – in fact he never stopped running. Sestak is known as a tenacious campaign; his work ethic is legendary. In the last two years, he attended over 400 political events in Pennsylvania while raising over $2 million for his campaign and now has over a quarter of a million miles on his car.
With a much more progressive electorate in a presidential year, his rematch with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is already looking like one of the top races of 2016. In fact, Toomey is rated by Politico, The Atlantic and Slate Magazine as one of the most vulnerable Republican Senators in the 2016.
Pennsylvania has a history of electing progressives. In the 2014 elections, Pennsylvania gubernatorial race was one of the few where a Democrat defeated a Republican incumbent in 2014.
Joe Sestak is the first Council for a Livable World Endorsed Candidate for 2016. And here’s why:
Born and raised in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Sestak attended the U.S. Naval Academy and later earned a Master’s in Public Administration and a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University.
During his distinguished 31-year career in the United States Navy, Sestak attained the rank of three-star Admiral and served in the White House, Pentagon, and in operational commands at sea. He served as President Clinton’s Director for Defense Policy on the National Security Council, oversaw the Navy’s warfare budget as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, and led a series of commands at sea, culminating in command of the USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier Battle Group (30 ships, 100 aircraft, and 15,000 sailors/marines/SEALs) during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq
In 2006 Joe defeated a ten-term incumbent in his home District, which was 55 percent Republican. In the House, he joined the Armed Services Committee and quickly emerged as one of leading voices calling for bringing our troops home from Iraq and over the next four years earned a progressive voting record on issues like missile defense and Afghanistan.
Since 2010, Sestak has been teaching courses on Ethical Leadership and on Restoring the American Dream at Carnegie Mellon University and Cheyney University, and is the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership, a joint faculty appointment at the United States Army War College, Dickinson College, and the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs.
It goes without saying that there will be many developments in the race over the next two years. It is not clear whether any Democrat will run in a primary against Admiral Sestak.
But Sestak has the national security experience and the political background to win in November 2016. Council for a Livable World is delighted to endorse him a second time.
