Adam Schwarze, a retired Marine and Navy SEAL who has conducted operations alongside the Israel Defense Forces, told JNS that becoming the next U.S. senator from Minnesota is “the most important mission I’ve ever done in my life.”
The 42-year-old Minnesota Republican Party-endorsed candidate to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) is slated to face Michelle Tafoya in the Aug. 11 Republican primary.
The winner is expected to face either Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan or Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in the Nov. 3 general election.
Despite recent polling suggesting that Tafoya is in the lead, with 41% compared to his 5%, a Minnesota GOP-endorsed candidate “has never lost a primary,” Schwarze told JNS.
“It’s never happened in the history of the party,” he said.
Schwarze secured 63% of delegate votes at the state’s Republican convention in May.
Born in St. Paul and adopted at 6-months-old, Schwarze enlisted in the Marine Corps after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He became a Navy SEAL and deployed nine times. He served at U.S. embassies in Armenia and Mali and conducted special operations missions in more than 70 countries, per his campaign website.
He told JNS that his experiences reinforced his belief that it is in America’s strategic interest to support Israel. He described himself as someone who “literally fought for President Trump, fought with Israel and has been a lifelong supporter of our special relationship.”
“That Syrian apparatus that the United States and Israel has is phenomenal for peace and stabilization throughout not only the region but the world,” Schwarze said. “A strong America and a strong Israel is a safer world. Period. Full stop. Our American interests and Israeli interests are, for the most part, aligned.”
“Look at what Israel has done for us being essentially the largest military base in the Middle East and taking so many heavies so those attacks don’t come here,” he told JNS. “It’s insane that people are trying to re-frame Israel as an enemy right now.”
Schwarze’s final paper during his undergraduate studies in political science at University of Minnesota focused on “options for how to propel peace with the State of Israel and the city of Jerusalem,” he told JNS. He went on to earn a master’s in international relations from Harvard University, where he also secured two graduate certificates, in nuclear deterrence and national security. He also has an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and is “a couple of classes shy of a master’s of public policy,” he told JNS.
“I’ve lived and breathed this for my whole life,” he said.
Schwarze thinks he is likely to face Flanagan, a progressive member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in the general election.
Flanagan has endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Minnesota state Attorney General Keith Ellison and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Flanagan would have voted to “halt offensive weapons sales to Israel,” per her campaign site.
Schwarze told JNS that he “could not be more ideologically opposed to Peggy Flanagan, who’s running as a socialist, who thinks that government’s the solution.”
“I think government is the problem and that people are the solution,” he said. “But we’re both going to win our primaries, because both of our bases want people that are real fighters and political outsiders, not more of the establishment.”
After the primary, Schwarze plans to focus on the issue of fraud in the state, particularly because Flanagan served as Gov. Tim Walz’s lieutenant governor. He told JNS that people in the state “are embarrassed” by alleged fraud in Minnesota.
“Minnesotans are caring, generous, hardworking people, but they don’t like being taken advantage of,” he said.
Schwarze has secured endorsements from Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.).
He plans to use his time in the Senate to “expand adoptions and make them cheaper, more affordable” and “get the government red tape out of the way,” he told JNS. “There are thousands of children all across the country who are waiting to be adopted to loving families just like I was.”
