As a Marine officer doing arms control negotiations, I saw how national security can be put at risk when politicians play games with filling leadership positions. Right now, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking more than 200 military confirmations -- and just took five weeks off for Senate recess.

So this week, I put this op-ed in Fox News because I want Tommy Tuberville, my opponent Josh Hawley, and every other Senate Republican to see it.

This email is longer than usual, but I wanted to take a moment this morning to tell you what’s exactly going on and how it impacts service members, military families, and our national security. Will you please let me explain?

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For the first time in over a century, the United States Marine Corps is without a Commandant -- the highest-ranking officer in the Corps. We're in this situation because Senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked hundreds of military promotions, including the Commandant's.

He claims he’s doing this because government funds have been made available to cover travel for some service members getting abortions. I spent 13 years as an active duty Marine (and am still a Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserves) and here is my personal take on the matter.

First, for a lot of us Marines, this just sucks. Going to the Commandant's house and meeting the Commandant during our initial six-month officer training called The Basic School is one of the highlights of that school.

The same can be said for Marines across the world and at every stage of their training or careers. The Commandant is a big deal for us -- someone we look up to, aspire to, and who gives us guidance. So not having a Commandant because some politician in D.C. wants to play games is a morale killer.

But the problem is much bigger than us not having a Commandant. Hundreds of other promotions are backed up with it. And that doesn't just suck -- that has a real impact on our troops and on national security.

Military life is hard. You move all the time, there's no certainty, there are lots of deployments, you work very long hours, but you do it because you believe in the mission and you believe in the country and taking care of the people who live here.

And now, because promotions aren't going through, people who've given decades of their lives to this country are being asked or forced to change their plans or not retire. The one thing they thought they had control over.

People are being frozen in place. They’re not getting the promotion they worked so hard for. Their kids don't know what school they're going to go to next year when the summer ends. Their spouses can't figure out their employment. The list goes on and on, and the impact of that is felt throughout the Corps.

This is wrong. Service members are being used for political leverage, the same way that these politicians recently used us veterans for political leverage by holding up the PACT Act -- which takes care of us for burn pit exposure we received in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's absolutely demoralizing to see them use us like this over and over and over again.

Senator Tuberville is quite literally punishing military families for things that other people have done that he doesn't like. It's shameful, it's selfish, and I'll be frank, it's stupid because it also damages our national security.

He goes out there and has the nerve to say that promotions and positions don't matter, an acting commander can do just as good a job, and be just as capable with or without the actual nomination going through.

Trust me though, rank and position do matter or they wouldn't exist.

I learned that myself when I was representing the US in arms control negotiations with NATO allies and Russia from 2016 to 2019. When you've got American officers with lower ranks going up against generals and admirals in critical meetings and negotiations, that matters.

Our allies, our partners, other countries, and our adversaries notice. Russia and China, they notice.

And now dozens, if not hundreds, of military officers are going to have to explain why the US is sending significantly lower ranks than their counterparts to critical meetings and negotiations around the globe.

When China sends a high-ranking general to meet with a third country and we send a one-star acting commander, that undermines our country, our position, and our national security. It's going to look like we don't care, it's going to look like we aren't serious, and people are going to question our country's resolve.

Weakening the position of our representatives overseas weakens our national security. Period. And that's exactly what Senator Tuberville is doing.

We need more folks right now in the media, in Congress, and especially in the Republican Party, to step up and say something -- and Senator Tuberville needs to stop putting his personal politics ahead of our troops and ahead of our national security.

These service members, veterans, and their families deserve to have someone looking out for them in the U.S. Senate -- and that’s just part of why I’m running to defeat Josh Hawley and flip this seat. But I can only win this race with help from groups like the PCCC.

So John, will you split a donation of whatever you can afford between my grassroots campaign and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee today? I don’t take a single cent from corporate PACs, federal lobbyists, or defense contractors -- so you know I’ll always be a voice for real, everyday people in the U.S. Senate.

Thanks for hearing me out,

-- Lucas Kunce

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