Ex-Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez Runs For US Senate

Former aircraft carrier pilot and Navy SEAL commander Gabriel Gomez, 47, beat Massachusetts State Representative Dan Winslow and former U.S. Attorney Mike Sullivan to win the Republican Party's nomination for a U.S. Senate seat. He will now face congressional mainstay Rep. Ed Markey in a June 25 general election.

Hyped by Republican colleagues as a political outsider, Gomez -- a first-generation American born in Los Angeles to Colombian parents -- has already begun positioning himself as a moderate conservative, claiming to have supported Obama in 2008, and sharing the President's views on gun control and immigration reform.

"If you're looking for a rigid partisan, I'm not your guy," states Gomez.

In his primary victory speech on Tuesday, Gomez also criticized Markey's 36-year tenure in the House of Representatives, referring to the Congressman's inaugural year in office by saying, "Gerald Ford was president. The Internet did not yet exist. 8 track players were big. Boston's first album had just come out. The first "Rocky" movie debuted in theaters. The median price of new homes was 44 thousand dollars. Our national debt, which today is over 16 Trillion, was not even 1 Trillion. Al Gore had not yet invented the Internet."

Markey's longstanding presence in Congress, however, also brings with it a sizable list of legislative accomplishments that includes national telecommunication growth, heightened security in airline cargo screening post 9/11, and climate change initiatives.

Gomez, who lives in Cohasset, Massachusetts, with his wife and four children, will undoubtedly be the underdog in a special election race to fill the seat of former democratic senator John Kerry. Kerry relinquished his seat in the senate after being appointed to Secretary of State late last year.

Though Markey is favored to win in the liberal-leaning commonwealth, Gomez is hoping to repeat the success of former U.S. Senator Scott Brown, whose come-from-behind special election win for Ted Kennedy's seat in 2010 was the first Republican senate victory in Massachusetts in 38 years.

The strength of Gomez's campaign will depend largely on his ability to acquire support from national Republican groups. Jerry Moran, the National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman has already endorsed Gomez, stating: "Throughout his life, Gabriel, a former Navy SEAL commander, has served a cause far greater than himself or any one of us. Gabriel Gomez is the kind of results-oriented leader who will bring a never say die attitude and spirit of service to the Senate on behalf of the Bay State."