Steve Watkins

Steven Charles Watkins Jr. (born September 18, 1976) is an American politician and former military officer.

Born on September 18, 1976, at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Watkins attended high school in Topeka, Kansas and left to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in 1999.

Watkins is a graduate of the following military schools: Ranger, Airborne, Sapper, Air Assault, and Pathfinder.

He was stationed at Fort Richardson in Alaska in 2000.

He began running dogs in Alaska in 2000, and competed in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

He saw combat in 2004 in Khost Province and conducted combat patrols on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, attaining the rank of captain.

After this, he began working as a defense contractor in Afghanistan, beginning in late 2004.

He finished in 58th place in 2015, ninth from last, and almost four days behind the top three mushers.

In a 2015 Washington Post interview, he said he had suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2013, and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder almost a decade prior.

He told reporters his injury was a "tipping point" propelling him in the direction of "a more conventional life".

Watkins' father, a physician, set up a political action committee (PAC) to underwrite his son's primary campaign.

It made two initial $64,000 advertising purchases during the primary.

Local Republican Party leaders expressed concerns about Watkins' background.

Kansas state Senator Steve Fitzgerald, a primary candidate, noted that Watkins had never voted in Kansas until a recent local election.

He did not finish the race in March 2018, having dropped out at Unalakleet, 261 mi from the finish in Nome.

Watkins spent five years on active duty with the United States Army.

In October 2018, the Associated Press published a story questioning a number of details of Watkins' claimed background, including a debunked assertion which he had made on his website that he had been praised by outfitter Guy Cotter for his leadership among climbers on Mount Everest after the Nepal earthquake.

Cotter claimed that he had never made the statement, and the assertion was removed from Watkins's website after the story was published.

A New Zealand Herald story indicated that Watkins was 600 meters above the South Base Camp when the latter was hit by a deadly landslide and avalanche.

Five weeks before the 2018 general election, the Kansas City Star reported that Watkins had claimed to have established a corporation when he had actually only consulted with the corporation long after it had been incorporated.

Watkins' campaign described the accusations as "fake news", and Watkins himself called them "baseless opinions from people who don't know me".

Watkins's residence in Kansas was disputed due to his supposed residence in Alaska.

Watkins owned two homes in Alaska, but did not own a home in Kansas.

Also, he had applied for the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend (a payment to those who say they plan to live in the state indefinitely have maintained residence for one year) 11 times.

An open letter signed by local GOP leaders expressing concern regarding Watkins's absence from his district was made public days before the seven-way primary.

According to the Associated Press, "public records show the 42-year-old Army veteran hadn’t lived in Kansas since he left high school — nearly two decades before returning to the state last year to run for Congress".

Watkins's 2018 general election campaign against moderate Democrat Paul Davis was described in the U.S. News & World Report as "one of the most negative and competitive congressional races in the country".

The candidates debated on October 3, agreeing on a need to protect Social Security, but disagreeing on immigration.

Watkins said he was in favor of Trump's proposed border wall, saying, "That doesn't make us mean-spirited or the racist bigots that some leftists would have you believe. It's just common sense."

He called for restricting health care spending, but protecting Social Security.

On October 6, 2018, President Trump spoke at a rally in Topeka, Kansas in favor of Watkins and gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach, who later lost.

Trump said that voting for Davis "is a vote for the radical agenda" of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and "the legendary Maxine Waters," a California congresswoman.

The paper wrote that "even a moment's attention from the president was the best thing that could have happened to [Watkins'] campaign."

He served as the U.S. representative for Kansas's KS's 2nd congressional district from 2019 to 2021.

He is a member of the Republican Party, and was succeeded by Jake LaTurner.

He earned degrees from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and Harvard.

In July, Donald Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, stated that Watkins and a second candidate for the seat, Dennis Pyle, had put out campaign ads with Trump's photo on them, without authorization, to imply that they had been endorsed by the president.

Watkins was endorsed by U.S. Representative Roger Marshall from Kansas Congressional District 1.

Watkins won the primary with 26.5% of the vote, defeating six other candidates.

His family's Super PAC had spent $710,010 supporting his candidacy, and $35,860 opposing Caryn Tyson, the Parscale-endorsed primary candidate who finished second.