Paris Train Attack Hero Looks to Unseat Liberal Oregon Rep. DeFazio

A military veteran, who helped disarm an Islamist gunman during a train ride from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015, is vying to get involved in politics, Fox News reports.

Alek Skarlatos, an Army National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan, is looking to unseat liberal Oregon lawmaker Peter DeFazio.

During a Wednesday appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Skarlatos said the Democrat lawmaker "doesn't represent the rural district anymore."

"I did some research and the more I learned about the [4th Congressional District] and everything that happened to it under the tenure of Peter DeFazio, the angrier I got," he told host Ainsley Earhardt.

He said he became interested in politics after he conversed with his state senator on a plane ride to Washington, D.C. This won’t be his first election campaign. Skarlatos ran for a local county commission seat in 2018.

Skarlatos won the Republican primary and will take on the veteran Democrat. DeFazio has served southwest Oregon since 1987. He chairs the Transportation Committee and founded the Progressive Caucus.

Skarlatos ripped the longtime lawmaker for being too liberal for the area he represents. He blasted his opponent for always voting with liberal Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

"He co-sponsored the Green New Deal with AOC. He votes with AOC 96% of the time, but he is not from New York or Seattle or San Francisco. He is from rural Oregon. He just doesn't represent the district anymore. I think there may have been a time where he did," Skarlatos said.

He told Fox & Friends that he is running a middle-of-the-road campaign that "people can get behind." 

"We need more political compromise in this country. I think the left and the right are getting way too divided and there is a lot to be said for someone who can run on the issues in the middle that most people care about and that's what we are planning on doing," he said.

The veteran received a U.S. Army’s Soldier Medal for his role in preventing a gunman from attacking a train car. He played himself in the 2018 Clint Eastwood film “The 15:17 to Paris,” which depicted the attempted attack.

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