By John Sharp | [email protected] A top donor to the University of Alabama who urged students to boycott the institution three years ago over his opposition against the state’s anti-abortion law has donated $200,000 to a political action committee supporting Katie Britt’s Senate campaign. Representatives for Britt, who is running on an anti-abortion and a “Christian conservative …
ByDylan Smith May 12, 2022 Thursday, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Durant announced that his campaign had landed the endorsement of former Trump administration U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. Prior to representing Montana as a member of Congress from 2015 to 2017, Zinke served in the armed forces as a U.S. Navy SEAL …
ByDylan Smith May 6, 2022 Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Durant drew criticism from his GOP primary rivals this past weekend when he opted not to respond to an on-camera question asking the candidate if he would denounce the Lincoln Project. During a Thursday evening political gathering in Phenix City, Durant was asked by an event attendee …
By Dylan Smith May 3, 2022 Tuesday, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Durant released a television advertisement centered around the controversial issue of election integrity and the 2020 presidential election. In the 30-second spot, Durant repeats his past assertion that the election was “robbed” and suggests that Democrats had “stacked the deck” against former President Donald Trump. …
By Mike Durant April 29, 2022 As a first-time candidate, I came in with a set of expectations about the challenges I might face running to serve Alabama in the United States Senate. With a month to go before the primary, much of what I thought about this process was true, but there were some …
Durant: Career politicians are a scourge on our country Read More »
1819 News | 04.07.22 As I campaign across Alabama, the liberal media continues to ask me if Joe Biden is the rightfully elected President of the United States. While my opponent, former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff Katie Boyd Britt dodges the question and keeps her friends in Washington happy, I give the answer in plain English. …
By Dylan Smith March 28, 2022 Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Durant, who recently met with former President Donald Trump in an effort to land his highly-coveted endorsement, has of late honed in on the issue of election integrity. During an appearance this past Friday on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal,” Durant detailed on his …
By Dylan Smith March 23, 2022 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Durant recently met with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., his campaign confirmed with Yellowhammer News on Wednesday. While noting that the two met on Monday, the Durant campaign would not comment further on the specifics of the …
Trump holds Mar-a-Lago meeting with U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Durant Read More »
MARCH 22, 2022 By TODD STACY, Alabama Daily News MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Mike Durant, the retired Army helicopter pilot of “Black Hawk Down” fame, leads a new poll in the race for U.S. Senate, with former Business Council of Alabama President Katie Britt running a close second and Congressman Mo Brooks falling far behind. In …
New ADN-Gray TV poll: Durant leads Britt, Brooks falls far behind Read More »
By Michael Yaffee March 19, 2022 On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a speech via video to a joint session of Congress, in which he asked for more military aid from the United States U.S. Army veteran and Republican candidate for Senate Mike Durant said he supported giving the Ukrainians what they needed to …
On October 3rd, 1993, during combat Operation Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu Somalia, “Super Six Four,” the Blackhawk helicopter flown by Mike Durant, was hit by an RPG and crashed in the city.
Mike and and his crew, Ray Frank, Bill Cleveland, and Tommy Field, all badly injured, fought for their lives as a violent mob approached. Witnessing what was about to happen from above, two members of the elite Special Operations unit Delta Force – MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart – volunteered to be inserted to defend them. They too were eventually overcome by the mob.
But Mike Durant, somehow survived, was captured and held as a POW by Somali General Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
The heroic actions of Gordon and Shughart – who were both posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor – are the reason Mike is alive today. Mike has seen sacrifice – fellow service members who put honor, country, and mission above all else. He knows firsthand that the United States leaves no one behind.
While in captivity, Mike heard the voice and promise of Dan Jollota broadcast from the sky:
“Mike Durant, we will not leave without you.”
…
Now, Mike is signing up for one more tour of duty to serve his country and Alabama in the United States Senate.
He’s watched as the Biden administration has deserted these core principles – abandoning our allies, along with American citizens, in Afghanistan; cowering to the influence of the Chinese as they evade responsibility for the Wuhan Virus; and letting the radical left open our borders and try and re-define the essence of what America stands for through misguided and distorted revisions of our history like “critical race theory”.
Mike believes that President Trump was the first President in his lifetime who always pushed for policies that put America first. That’s because he knows that America is more than just a country – it is a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world.
President Trump knew it, Mike Durant lived it. And he will carry that vision forward in the U.S. Senate.
Mike Durant was released from captivity in Somalia after 11 days. He would later write a book titled In the Company of Heroes, about his experience on that mission in Somalia and the many other missions he participated in during his career. He also wrote The Night Stalkers, about the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) in which he served.
After retiring from the Army with 22 years of active-duty service, Mike moved to Alabama with his family to start a new chapter in his life. He started and grew a highly successful business – Pinnacle Solutions, an engineering and services company based in Huntsville.
In thirteen years, Pinnacle has grown from a home office-based startup to over 500 employees and more than 175 subcontractor personnel operating in sixteen US and international locations with major prime and subcontract efforts supporting the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, NASA and the U.S. Special Operations Command.
Mike has a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Aeronautics and a Master of Business Administration in Aviation degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Mike’s military awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star with Valor device, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal, three Air Medals, one with Valor device, the POW/MIA ribbon, the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and numerous other awards.
He and his wife Lisa (also an Army Aviator) reside in Huntsville and have a family of six children, four boys and two girls, three grandchildren and a fourth on the way.
