Allen West

His first assignment was as an airborne infantry fire support officer and platoon leader, as well as battalion training officer for the 4th BCT(Battalion Combat Team), 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, SETAF (Southern European Task Force) under the command of LTC Thomas R. Needham at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy.

Allen Bernard West (born February 7, 1961) is an American politician and retired military officer.

Allen Bernard West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Elizabeth (Thomas; 1931–1994) West and Herman West, Sr. (1920–1986) on February 7, 1961.

His father and older brother were both career military officers; West's father served in World War II, and his brother served in Vietnam.

His mother was a civilian employee of the United States Marine Corps.

Although both of his parents were registered Democrats, West has remarked that they raised him "very conservatively".

In the tenth grade of high school, West joined the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program.

After graduation from high school, he attended the University of Tennessee, where he joined the Army ROTC program.

West was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and began his military career in 1983 after graduating from the University of Tennessee.

Upon graduation from the University of Tennessee in 1983, he was commissioned as an officer in the Field Artillery branch and entered active duty in the U.S. Army.

West is the third of four consecutive generations in his family to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

He later received a master's degree in political science from Kansas State University.

He also earned a master of military arts and sciences degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Officer College in political theory and military history and operations.

West entered active duty on November 1, 1983, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he completed the Field Artillery Officer's Basic Course (FAOBC).

He then proceeded to airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he received his Parachutist Badge.

In 1987, West was promoted to captain and attended the Field Artillery Officer's Advanced Course.

Following graduation, West took command of B Battery, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.

He was deployed to Kuwait in 1991 and Iraq in 2003.

After returning from Kuwait, West served as an Army ROTC instructor at Kansas State University from 1991 to 1994, becoming the U.S. Army ROTC Instructor of the Year in 1993.

In January 1995 he was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division Support Command as the assistant operations/combat plans officer.

West was promoted to major before he attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1997.

In 2003, West was charged in an incident that involved the beating and simulated execution of an Iraqi policeman, with West firing a gun near the Iraqi man's head during an interrogation.

After an Article 32 hearing was held, West accepted non-judicial punishment, was fined $5,000, and allowed to retire as a lieutenant colonel. After leaving the army, West moved to Florida, where he taught at a high school for a year and worked for a defense contractor, part of this time spent in Afghanistan as a civilian adviser to the Afghan National Army.

West entered politics in 2008 as the Republican nominee for Florida's 22nd congressional district, losing to Democratic incumbent Ron Klein.

In a rematch in 2010, he won the seat, coinciding with significant Republican gains in that year's midterm elections.

Redistricting due to the 2010 census resulted in West switching to FL's 18th congressional district for the 2012 House elections.

He lost to Democratic nominee Patrick Murphy in what was the most expensive congressional House race that year.

A member of the Republican Party, West represented FL's 22nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013 and served as the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas from 2020 to 2021.

West took office in January 2011 as the first African-American Republican member of Congress from Florida since Josiah T. Walls left office in 1876 near the end of Reconstruction.

In Congress, West was a high-profile member of the Tea Party Caucus and the Tea Party movement.

Widely described as a "firebrand conservative", West stirred controversy during his time in Congress for incendiary comments about Islam, descriptions of President Barack Obama as a "low-level Socialist agitator", and unfounded accusations that 81 Democratic members of Congress were members of the Communist Party.

He served as the battalion task force fire support officer for 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment.

As a member of the 1st Infantry Division he deployed for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

West ran for the chairmanship of the Republican Party of Texas in 2020.

West became the new state chairman after he defeated the incumbent chairman, James Dickey, on July 20, 2020.

On June 4, 2021, West announced his resignation as GOP chair, fueling speculation that he would challenge Governor Greg Abbott in the 2022 gubernatorial primary.

On July 4, 2021, West announced his run for Governor of Texas from his church in Carrollton, Texas.

His resignation was effective July 11, when the State Republican Executive Committee met to select his successor.

On the way out, West has received criticism within the Texas GOP for having a conflict of interest; it has been alleged that he should not have served as Texas GOP chair and campaigned for governor at the same time.

He was defeated by Abbott in the primary.