Many veterans have a heart for service that lasts long after they leave the military.
Locally, several candidates who ran for office or for reelection are veterans.
Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester) served in the Air Force and the Air Force Reserves and attended Stanford, earning an engineering degree with an ROTC scholarship. Houlahan was just reelected to her third term.
Voters reelected state Rep. Craig Williams (R-Chester/Delaware). Williams served three decades in the U.S. Marine Corps and flew 56 combat missions during the Gulf War. He was decorated for valor and retired as a colonel.
Republican Alfeia Goodwin ran for Congress in Delaware County. For the last 23 years, Goodwin has served in the Army Reserves and saw service overseas in Iraq. She decided to enlist on Sept. 11, 2001, the day the U.S. was attacked by terrorists who flew planes into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon, killing some 3,000 people.
David Winkler, also a Republican, for Congress in Montgomery County this year. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving the Marines, he joined the Army.
Democrat Ashley Ehasz made her second run for Congress in Bucks County in 2024. Ehasz graduated from West Point, completed flight school, and was an Apache helicopter pilot. She deployed to Kuwait and Iraq, and later to South Korea.
Veteran statewide candidates include Dave McCormick, a Republican who was just declared the winner of the U.S. Senate race. McCormick also attended West Point. He served in the 82nd Air Borne during the first Gulf War and was awarded the Bronze Star.
Stacy Garrity was just reelected to her second term as state treasurer. Garrity, a Republican, is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel. She served in Iraq and while there, was called “Angel of the Desert” for her service at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. She kept the camp secure, American troops safe, and no Iraqis complained of abuse.
Garrity was deployed three times to Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008. She was awarded the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit.
“Serving in the U.S. Army Reserve was and is the honor of my lifetime,” Garrity told DVJournal. “The discipline I learned in the military is something that I still use every day, and it has served me well as state treasurer. As Military Police, my job was to assist, protect and defend our great nation. Now as Pennsylvania’s treasurer, I’m here to a assist my fellow Pennsylvanians, to protect their hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and to defend our constitution.”
Navy veteran Dave Sunday was just elected state attorney general. Sunday, a Republican and the York County District Attorney, worked his way through college and law school at UPS. He ran on a platform that combined law and order but also compassion for those struggling with substance abuse.
