Michael Cassidy Headed to Run-Off with Incumbent Michael Guest in MS-3 Race

Navy reservist and pilot Michael Cassidy (R) is headed to a run-off against incumbent Rep. Michael Guest (R) for Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District in late June after coming in ahead of Guest by a few percentage points on Tuesday’s primary.

“I am grateful to the people of Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District for giving me the most votes in the June 7th Republican Primary. This is the first step in replacing our current congressman with someone who better represents our conservative Mississippi values,” Cassidy said in a statement.

He added, “I am calling on Mr. Guest to give the voters the opportunity to see us debate and so he can be held accountable for voting for the Democrats’ January 6th Commission, for voting for multiple omnibus spending bills that gave over a billion dollars to Planned Parenthood, and for giving $53 billion to Ukraine when American families are suffering.”

Cassidy revealed to Breitbart News exclusively last month that he was facing what he believed was retaliation from the Navy for statements criticizing the Navy for wokeness, despite him making them in his civilian capacity, not reservist capacity.

Cassidy was being investigated by the Navy and grounded from flying in his reservist capacity and as a civilian test pilot at a Navy base in Mississippi but was not given clear reasons as to why.

Eventually, he was told he was being investigated for statements on his website that called for ending “all wokeism, Diversity/Inclusion/Equity indoctrination, and using race and sex as factors in promotion and job qualification.”

He said he was told if he were to fly with a female or minority student and they did poorly, they could theoretically sue the Navy or complain to the Navy that they allowed him — “this avowed racist and sexist” — to train them and that was the reason they did poorly.

He also said he was being investigated to see whether he had a “general commitment to Navy equal opportunity principles” and that told his statements were “detrimental to good order and discipline” because he was contradicting Navy policy.

“Everything that I’ve said, everything that I’ve done, I’ve done it in a civilian capacity — I haven’t done any of this in uniform, I haven’t pushed any of this on base, and I’ve adhered to the DOD policies of having disclaimers on my website, etc,” he told Breitbart News.

Cassidy said his grounding was part of a larger targeting of conservatives in the military.

“It is remarkable. It is sad. Honestly, it’s sad. We had [an extremism] stand down, [the Navy] wanted us to redo the oaths of office, because obviously the people who don’t give the oath — they’re the ‘extremists.’ It’s just offensive. It’s truly offensive,” he said.

“It’s bureaucratic leftism, and that’s truly one of the reasons I’m running for office is because I truly cannot — I am so disgusted by what is happening to our military, that’s it’s gone away from focusing on how can we be as lethal as possible, to how can we check as many of these leftist values in the military, and how do we not offend people, and how do we accommodate everyone’s feelings.”

On Wednesday, Cassidy alleged that Guest had attacked him for calling out wokeism in the military.

“I didn’t back down to the Navy then, and I won’t back down to the misrepresentations of @GuestCongress now,” he tweeted.

This morning, @GuestCongress attacked me for having the guts to call out wokeism in the military, which led to an unjust, politicized retaliation against me. I didn’t back down to the Navy then, and I won’t back down to the misrepresentations of @GuestCongress now. https://t.co/kpyFIIh5Eq

— Michael Cassidy for MS-3 🇺🇸 (@VoteCassidy) June 8, 2022

The run-off is June 28.

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter or on Facebook.