Yahoo Finance Real-Life Black Hawk Down Pilot Enters Ala. Senate Race: 'Signing Up for One More Tour of Duty'
Carolina Hidalgo/Naples Daily News via AP Mike Durant
The helicopter pilot shot down and held prisoner in a 1993 incident that would go on to inspire the book and film Black Hawk Down officially declared his candidacy for Senate on Wednesday, saying he would enter the race as a pro-Trump Republican.
Mike Durant will seek the Republican nomination to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Richard Shelby, who will retire at the end of his term in 2022.
An ad announcing his candidacy begins with footage of Durant, now 60, when he was held captive in 1993. "I'm a Black Hawk pilot," a bloodied and bruised Durant says to the camera.
The footage was filmed after two Black Hawk helicopters (one piloted by Durant) were shot down by militiamen in in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. After being beaten, Durant was taken hostage by a local warlord and released back into U.S. custody after 11 days spent in a cramped cement room, nursing serious injuries.
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"I'm Mike Durant. I'm a 22-year Army veteran, a Pro-Trump conservative, a businessman, and a father of six. I've served our nation before, and I'm ready to serve it again. I've got one more tour of duty left to serve my country and Alabama," Durant said in a tweet along with the ad.
On his new campaign website, Durant describes his stance on several hot-button issues, such as critical race theory — a niche academic movement that has become a flashpoint with conservatives, and which Durant calls "distorted revisions of our history." Durant also dismisses vaccine mandates meant to curb COVID-19 deaths as "ridiculous."
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His website also expresses the pilot's admiration for former President Donald Trump.
"Mike believes that President Trump was the first President in his lifetime who always pushed for policies that put America first. That's because he knows that America is more than just a country – it is a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world," Durant's campaign website reads. "President Trump knew it, Mike Durant lived it."
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Trump, meanwhile, has endorsed fellow Republican Mo Brooks for the seat sought by Durant.
Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives, was one of the speakers at the now-infamous Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, during which he told the crowd: "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking a--," CNN reports.
Hours later, a group of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory.
According to his campaign website, Durant retired from the Army with 22 years of active-duty service, going on to found a company that specializes in building military training equipment. His biography adds that he and his wife, Lisa, live in Huntsville, Alabma, and have six children and three grandchildren, with one more on the way.
