A decorated war vet is battling to win New York City’s most conservative congressional seat as a Democrat.
Max Rose, 31, kicked off his campaign for the 11th congressional district on Staten Island Saturday as the first post-9/11 combat vet to seek office in the five boroughs.
“We, as Democrats, need to regain the trust of the people and not be bought out by the system,” Rose told a crowd of 200 in a North Shore church. “It’s time for a change, and I believe that I can help cut the cost of health care and education, fix this opioid crisis and bring Staten Island and south Brooklyn back to the way it was.”
If Rose wins the Democratic primary June 26, he’ll face the winner of a bloody GOP race between current Rep. Dan Donovan and ex-con ex-congressman Michael Grimm.
Democrats believe the seat is up for grabs amid the tumult of the Trump presidency. Rose is one of just 18 House candidates in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program targeting districts viewed as flippable, and his campaign says it has raised more than $700,000.
Political combat is child’s play compared to the challenges Rose faced in Afghanistan.
In April 2013, Rose was a 26-year-old Army first lieutenant when his platoon’s Stryker combat vehicle drove over an improvised explosive device in the northern part of Kandahar Province. He was knocked unconscious and woke up in his Afghan translator’s arms, his head gushing blood and right knee cut close to the bone.
He was hospitalized for 10 days, which he spent itching to get back to his squad. “I missed them, I love them — nothing else mattered but that,” he said.
Rose earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, but what happened in the hospital helped shape his determination to run for Congress.
“A two-star general comes up to me and he says, ‘Son, five years ago you’d be dead,’ ” Rose recalled.
The Stryker had armor underneath designed to withstand explosions. Before that, roadside bombs turned Strykers into so-called “Kevlar Coffins.”
“After far too many soldiers had died, Congress got their act together to save soldiers’ lives,” he said of the upgrades to battlefield equipment.
“Now look at Congress today. They can’t get a thing done.”
Rose thinks a solider’s mentality can change that.
“Every day these soldiers woke up with purpose. They came from every corner of the globe, every corner of the country, independent, Democrat, Republican, conservative, politically oblivious — didn’t matter,” he said. “The mission was all that mattered. Looking out for one another was all that mattered. And I’d like to see more of that attitude in Washington, DC.”
He says he wants a federal infrastructure bill and tax reform and supports increasing vocational-training opportunities and resources for schools.
Rose lives with his fiancée in St. George, and they plan to marry later this year. Before announcing his run, Rose worked for the late Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson and Brightpoint Health. He remains an infantry commander in the National Guard.
He grew up in Brooklyn, attending school at Poly Prep in Bay Ridge. Rose got a degree in history from Wesleyan University and a masters in philosophy and public policy from the London School of Economics.