Retired US Naval Commander and combat veteran, Bob Smith, is running in the 2026 Republican Primary for US Congress in California’s 24th district. Commander Smith now seeks to unseat the Democrat incumbent, US Representative Salud Carbajal.
This week, The Gateway Pundit gained an exclusive interview with Commander Smith, in which Commander Smith elaborated on his platform and his background.
“I grew up in a lower-income family in the Philadelphia area. Most of my teenage life I lived with my grandmother, because my dad was sent away to prison. My grandmother was a janitor at a local hospital. So, I wound up dropping out of school in 10th Grade, because really we couldn’t afford anything, in a bad neighborhood. I was a good student, and a good athlete. I wasn’t a bad kid, but circumstances got to a point,” Commander Bob Smith told The Gateway Pundit.
“So, I immediately got a GED, and I started working for a construction company. At some point, the construction company owner recommended that I join the Navy. I enlisted with a high school diploma that the Navy helped me to obtain after about three months of night classes. I became a SPY-1 radar technician and operator. Then, I went to my first ship, the USS Winston Churchill, in Bath, Maine. I deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, participating in combat operations.”
“Then, I got selected for a program called Seaman Admiral. The Navy selects some of its top enlisted people, and you can go to any college of your choice and be commissioned as an officer once you get your bachelor’s degree. I completed a General Engineering degree, and I got commissioned as an Officer. I deployed multiple times to support Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and in Somalia – all combat tours – operating as an air and missile defense Commander on those ships.”
“When I was done with my time on ships, I had the opportunity to join what is essentially the Navy’s corps of engineers. I was a combat systems type of engineer. We do acquisitions, program management, research and development, and tests and evaluations on combat systems. When a fleet has a capability gap, we generally work out of program offices in Washington, DC to fill those capability gaps with actual programs.”
“We do the initial prototypes with contractors. We submit it through the Department of Defense, into the presidential budget. Then we work with all the different Congressional offices to get our programs fully funded and approved. Finally, we deliver our programs back to the fleet – whether that’s a sensor, a missile, or anything else. That’s how I’ve spent the last half of my career,” Commander Smith said.
Evidently, having personally worked out of Washington, DC for over five years, Commander Smith has witnessed such deep-seated corruption firsthand that he now feels obliged to stay in the fight.
“I am running for Congress because I realized, after I retired in September, that I am not done serving our country. It’s what I have done my entire adult life,” Commander Smith said.
“I cannot stand career politicians, and I cannot stand the bureaucracy in our federal government. I am completely against that. If I get elected, I would probably serve for about six years, and then I would voluntarily step down from the job.”
“Career politicians who come into office for 40 years – controlling all the purse strings, controlling the government, controlling the legislation – they start the problem as to why our government is such a bloated mess. And it’s all done just to pander for votes – for power and for money. I can tell you personally, having run major defense acquisition programs, that the problem with waste, fraud, and abuse, starts with Congress.”
“Congress does not pass budgets on time. So, everyone in the program offices waits for their programs to start on October 1st. And then, when the budget doesn’t come on time, that program is off.”
“Imagine running any business like this, where you don’t have a budget to start your business on time. Your plan is now late. It can take 10-12 years for us to deliver radar systems this way,” Commander Smith said.
Commander Smith’s Congressional district spans the Central Coast of California, encompassing the better-known cities of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura. Undoubtedly, Commander Smith assesses the leadership in his district to be corrupt and incompetent.
“Settling here in my wife’s hometown, where we have had our house since 2010, I have realized that this area has gone 10 times what is past normal here. And it’s going to require some hard leadership to bring this back towards the more normal range of exits here,” Commander Smith said.
“We have got to start doing common-sense work here, especially in this area, and in California, in general. If I’m going to stay here for the rest of my life, I cannot watch the disaster happen in front of my eyes, and not get engaged. That would go against all of my core values of leadership.”
“I want to show my son how you serve our community, get civically engaged, and serve our country,” Commander Smith said.
“Regardless of whether we have a contested Republican Primary, I am completely focused on the General Election. We have got to replace the inept politicians here, in this area. Every single one of them, from city councils, up to Carbajal, are all from the same cabal. On the Democrat side, they don’t let anybody else in. Many races are uncontested, because the Democrats block everyone else out. So, this inept, incompetent group of people is controlling almost everything in this county.”
“The focus has got to be on getting them out. The people holding these seats forever are not the best leaders; they are not the best problem-solvers. They are just holding seats for their own personal gain,” Commander Smith said.
Commander Smith took direct aim at his likely General Election opponent, the incumbent Democrat Salud Carbajal, for accomplishing starkly little while in office.
“Carbajal is in his ninth year in Congress, and he has not authored one real piece of legislation that has passed into law. He does not lead a single committee. He does not control a single purse string. Salud is a nothing burger. He does nothing whatsoever,” Commander Smith said.
“Imagine being a normal constituent, and working hard everyday in a district where the median income does not even meet the recommended income for a family of four to own a home, and meet basic needs.”
“A single budget has not passed on time during Salud’s entire time in Congress,” Commander Smith said.
The Gateway Pundit reported that the 2024 Republican nominee for US Congress in California’s 24th District, Thomas Cole, sought the support of many non-Republican voters, in spite of Thomas Cole’s hardline, common sense, conservative policy. Likewise, in order to unseat a US Congressional incumbent in this rather blue district, Commander Smith must rally a wide net of support.
“We need a coordinated focus to get people to vote across the aisle. We have to recognize that there is a group of Democrats in this country who no longer understand their party, because it has gone so far left. You can convince these voters to vote across the aisle on common sense, common ground issues, which is the slogan of my campaign,” Commander Smith said.
“We are in a 60-40 district. We have multiple universities here, and we see that the 18-24 year-olds are very disenfranchised.”
“We need real support from the Republican party. It’s going to take funding, and it’s going to take a ground game, here,” Commander Smith said.
Commander Smith’s broader platform and background can be found at bobsmithforcongress.com.
The post EXCLUSIVE: Retired US Naval Commander Republican Bob Smith Running for US Congress in California-24: ‘I Am Not Done Serving Our Country’ and ‘Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Starts with Congress’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.