{"id":588673,"date":"2021-07-12T07:36:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T11:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=588673"},"modified":"2021-07-12T07:36:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T11:36:22","slug":"exclusive-former-nfl-player-jake-bequette-announces-run-for-u-s-senate-in-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-former-nfl-player-jake-bequette-announces-run-for-u-s-senate-in-arkansas\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Former NFL Player Jake Bequette Announces Run For U.S. Senate In Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-former-nfl-player-jake-bequette-announces-run-for-u-s-senate-in-arkansas%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=588673&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-124892857.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Jake Bequette\u2019s service to his country began when he left his life as a professional football player and joined the 101st Airborne Division. He served in the military for three and a half years, but his service to his country, he says, is just beginning.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cToday, I am announcing a run for the U.S. Senate in Arkansas,\u201d Bequette said in an interview with The Daily Wire. \u201cI\u2019m born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. I\u2019m a third generation Arkansas Razorback. I come from a football family. My grandfather, father, and uncle all played football at the University of Arkansas, and it was a lifelong dream of mine to play football for the Hogs and wear that Razorback on my helmet. And I was very blessed to be able to do so as a team captain and be on some great Razorback football teams.\u201d<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bequette, a Republican, will challenge current&nbsp;Arkansas Senator John Boozman (R-AR), who will be running for his third term in office. The general election is set for November 8, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>After retiring from the military, <span>Bequette launched a relief fund \u2014 The Arkansas Fund \u2014 aimed at helping struggling businesses in the state of Arkansas, but he feels there is still more he can do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI see this run as the continuation of the oath that I took to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,\u201d Bequette said. \u201cJust seeing the violence in our streets, the suppression of our economy, everything that\u2019s happening coming out of Washington that\u2019s permeated into every institution in American life. We need bold, dynamic difference makers in Washington who are going to actually stand up and fight for the conservative values that Arkansans\u2019 and millions of Americans truly care about. That\u2019s why I\u2019m running.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bequette\u2019s journey into politics has not been traditional. After a stellar career at Arkansas, and four years with the New England Patriots in the NFL, Bequette felt the pull of military service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt was in my last couple of years in New England that I really started to feel the call to serve my country in uniform,\u201d Bequette said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what I did when my NFL career was over. I enlisted in the army and commissioned as an infantry Lieutenant, volunteered and graduated from the U.S. Army Ranger School and deployed to Iraq with the 101st Airborne division.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cServing in Iraq with the 101st Airborne was the greatest honor of my life, wearing that flag on my shoulder and representing the legacy of one of the greatest units in the entire army, and to represent my country was truly an honor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When he returned from Iraq, the America he came back to was not the America he\u2019d left behind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWhen I came back from Iraq and observed what was happening in this country over the last year to 18 months, I realized that my service wasn\u2019t finished.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI came back from Iraq and I saw street violence on a scale that was more reminiscent of a Middle Eastern country than our home,\u201d Bequette said. \u201cThat made me extremely angry. We saw small businesses \u2014 not just in Arkansas but nationwide \u2014 who were absolutely crushed through no fault of their own. They were told they could not conduct business. They were told they were non-essential. The government shut them down and suppressed them. I saw firsthand through my work with The Arkansas Fund \u2014 a nonprofit small business relief that I started \u2014 the economic devastation that was wrought and the consequences of that we\u2019re still grappling with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a turbulent time in America. With leaders in Washington consistently pushing a message that many feel is anti-American, Bequette has seen enough.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cFirst and foremost, I\u2019m running because Washington is failing America,\u201d Bequette said. \u201cPart of the problem is you have the radical socialist leadership of Democrats under President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and \u2018The Squad.\u2019 But also part of the problem is career politicians in the Republican party who simply refuse to stand up and fight for what\u2019s right. If you\u2019re going to be a leader in the Republican party, if you\u2019re going to lead the conservative movement these days, you have to be someone who\u2019s willing to stand up, lead from the front, move the needle, and be a difference maker on key issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As Washington continues to lean further to the Left, Bequette says America is in a crucial time, and he intends to lend a hand in assisting the country he loves.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAmerica is at a crossroads. The Democrats in Washington have never been more radical than they are today. They want to institute insane policies like defund the police, like \u2018The Green New Deal,\u2019\u201d Bequette continued. \u201cThey want to push ideologies that are anti-American like critical race theory. We have a legitimate crisis at our southern border that\u2019s been unaddressed by generations of career politicians in both parties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI see this run as the continuation of my service. I love this country,\u201d Bequette said. \u201cI think there are millions of Arkansans and people around the country who are just saying \u2018enough is enough.\u2019 They\u2019re sick of the insanity. And they\u2019re looking for anyone who is willing to stand up and fight and be unafraid, be unapologetically pro-American, conservative and fight for the traditional values that made this country. Those are the values that I believe in. I believe that millions of our Arkansans share those values, and I can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bequette sees his untraditional route into politics as an advantage. He\u2019s not a career politician, and he believes his story \u2014 his life as an Arkansan \u2014 will resonate with the people of his home state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI don\u2019t come from that world [politics]. I come from the world of the Arkansas voter, the Arkansas conservative,\u201d Bequette told The Daily Wire. \u201cI speak their language. I share their values. I\u2019m not a career politician. I\u2019m an athlete, I\u2019m a soldier, I\u2019m a leader. And that\u2019s what I intend to do in Washington is to lead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019ve been a leader my entire life. I was a two-time team captain of my football team at the University of Arkansas, and I was the platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. And we need bold leaders. We need people who are going to stand up and fight on those crucial issues that we just discussed. And the career political class in Washington is just not getting it done. And we have too many establishment career politicians in both parties who have been up there for multiple decades.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For Bequette, the fight may have been overseas in years\u2019 past, but it\u2019s on American soil now. It\u2019s a fight he\u2019s willing to enter.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s going to take years in some cases for these small businessmen and women to rebuild their livelihood. Those are the kinds of people in this country who we should be protecting, not suppressing, not crushing,\u201d Bequette said. \u201cI decided to join the army because I wanted to be in the fight. I wanted to be where the fight was. And I think it\u2019s clear now that the fight is not on a distant battlefield, the fight is right here. It\u2019s political and we need leaders who are willing to stand up and speak the truth.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jake Bequette\u2019s service to his country began when he left his life as a professional football player and joined the 101st Airborne Division. He served in the military for three &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314461,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-124892857.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"EXCLUSIVE: Former NFL Player Jake Bequette Announces Run For U.S. Senate In Arkansas","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-124892857.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"EXCLUSIVE: Former NFL Player Jake Bequette Announces Run For U.S. Senate In Arkansas","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}