An Iraq War veteran mulling a third-party presidential bid has dropped out of the race before ever getting in.
David French, a former Army Reserve officer working with the “Never Trump” movement, wrote in the conservative National Review on Sunday that he would not launch an independent presidential run, despite support from peers frustrated with the success of Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“Never before have both parties failed so spectacularly, producing two dishonest, deceitful candidates who should be disqualified from running for town council, much less leader of the free world,” he wrote in the piece.
“Given this reality, it would be tempting to say that when it comes to confronting this national moment, ‘somebody’ stepping up is better than nobody. But somebody is not always better than nobody. I’m on record saying that Mitt Romney could win. I believe others could run and win, and would make excellent presidents.”
But French does not see himself as that candidate.
“I thank God for the successes I’ve had as a lawyer and a writer, but it is plain to me that I’m not the right person for this effort,” he wrote.
French served for seven years in the military, reaching the rank of major, and served in Iraq’s Diyala province as judge advocate for the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, in 2007-2008, according to his personal bio.
He earned a Bronze Star for that Iraq deployment work, and also received the Army Achievement Medal and Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal during his career. He is also a Harvard Law School graduate and a former Cornell Law School lecturer, concentrating on constitutional law and the law of armed conflict.
But French had little name recognition outside of conservative circles, and would have needed considerable fundraising and publicity to become a factor in the fall presidential race.
French wrote that the ideal outsider candidate needs to be “a person who either is extraordinarily wealthy (or has immediate access to extraordinary wealth) or is a transformational political talent” in order to catch up with Trump and Clinton.
Political operatives have tried to recruit Romney, former Central Command chief James Mattis and others to step into the race, but all have declined thus far.
Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at lshane@militarytimes.com.
