Nathan Nelson Ends Campaign For U.S.Congress
SANTA ROSA BEACH, FL – Today, Nathan Nelson announced he is ending his campaign for U.S. Congress.
“I’m grateful for the outpouring of support from the community calling me to represent Northwest Florida in Congress,” said Nathan. “After much consideration and prayer, we don’t feel like this is the right time to run a proper campaign. We fully support President Donald Trump’s decision to endorse Jimmy Patronis and I hope to work closely with him in the future to strengthen our military mission and defense base in Northwest Florida, just as I did with Congressman Matt Gaetz. “
In 2013, Nathan Nelson was serving as an intelligence officer for Air Force Special Operations Command on his third deployment to Afghanistan when he was catastrophically injured in a rocket attack. Now paralyzed from the chest down, Nathan has committed his life to supporting Veterans and inspiring others with his message of faith and resiliency.
Nelson served as the Director of Military Affairs for Congressman Matt Gaetz. In this capacity, Nelson worked to align local, state, and federal efforts to build and strengthen the military mission in Northwest Florida. In this disproportionally military-heavy district, the scope of effort encompassed every service branch and included training and operational units, both conventional and special operations, as well as research, development, test, and evaluation missions. Nelson spearheaded efforts to dramatically increase collaboration between the defense industry and the warfighter fostering innovation and reduced costs to the taxpayer. He worked closely with major research universities to explore high-skilled STEM workforce development pipelines to feed the mission growth.
Currently, Nelson has been serving the warfighter from the private sector, focused on strategic growth opportunities for a small defense contractor. Nelson enjoys public speaking, sharing his inspiring and emotional testimony of faith and resiliency with a wide range of audiences. Nathan lives in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, with his wife, Jennifer, and his two children,Eva and Silas. They are members of Destiny Worship Center.
Florida Politics reports Valentino suffered a blow when Tom Homan, a former Acting Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who has now been tapped by Trump to be the incoming administration’s Border Czar, rescinded his endorsement for Valentino, instead backing Patronis in deferment to his new boss.
