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Running for First: Three-star general to join race for U.S. Congress

Jack Bergman, a retired Marine Corps general from the western Upper Peninsula, is entering the race for northern Michigan’s seat in U.S. Congress. The republican says he plans to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission sometime in the next two weeks.

“Marines don’t come to just kind of finish second,” Bergman says. “Marines come to win.”

Bergman has toured the district for several weeks, speaking with voters and collecting signatures to put his name on the Republican primary ballot of the 1st Congressional District.

The district is expected to be one of the most competitive House races in the nation in November. On the Republican side, state Sen. Tom Casperson and former state legislator Jason Allen have also declared for the race.

Former Kalkaska County sheriff Jerry Cannon and Lon Johnson, former state Democratic Party chairperson, are running as Democrats.

Bergman, who lives in Watersmeet, has not run for political office before. He says reining in the national debt is his top legislative priority.

“The debt that our country is saddling our grandchildren with is insurmountable,” Bergman says. “When you combine that with the safety and security issues that our country is facing, we need to send a different type of person to Washington D.C.”

The primary election is August 2.