Captain Crozier operated outside of the chain of command to keep his troops safe. I know what it’s like to have the military try and stop you from speaking out.

When I was in the Marine Corps, I was sexually assaulted by a fellow Marine, but the military failed to prosecute. 1/ https://twitter.com/bluevirginia/status/1247503505520295939

I know what it means to have the system fail you. I reported the assault, I cooperated with the investigation, but the Marine Corps chose to protect my assaulter.

Instead of dealing with what was a rampant problem in the military at the time, they tried to shut me up.

Captain Crozier knew he was taking a risk when he sent that letter without the supervision of his command, just as I knew I was taking a risk when I worked with civilian authorities without the consent of my command to prosecute the Marine who assaulted me.

But part of being a leader is standing up and speaking truth to power, and no leader will regret the consequence of a decision made in an attempt to do what is right.

That’s one of the reasons I’m running for Congress, to take on the broken system that protects the powerful.

That's why I’m throwing my full support behind Captain Crozier and calling on all our elected officials to hold Navy leadership’s feet to the fire and demand that we protect our servicemembers by addressing the very real issues raised by Captain Crozier.

Now, more than ever we need leaders willing to raise the alarm and I cannot sit quietly by as our system once again tries to silence those voices. I hope you’ll join me.