ABOUT THE CANDIDATE
Meet Ret. Major Richard Ojeda
A LIFE OF SERVICE
It’s time to fight for North Carolina.
Richard Ojeda spent 24 years in the U.S. Army, serving tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti. Fifteen of those years were spent in Fayetteville at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where his daughter was born and his family was raised. Through service, North Carolina became his family’s forever home. After retiring from the military, Richard moved to be near his aging parents in West Virginia, where he continued his service by teaching JROTC at a local high school, passing on what he’d learned to kids from the same hills he grew up in.
In those halls, he saw just how deep the people at home were hurting. So he ran for the State Senate – and won. In a superminority, he got things done, from passing medical cannabis legislation to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers during the historic strike that sparked a movement across the nation.
After his service in the Senate, Richard and his family returned home to North Carolina, bringing both his parents and his in-laws with him. He had no plans to get back into politics, but the state of our union became too much to bear. Now, he’s ready to fight again – standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his neighbors and taking their fight all the way to the halls of Congress.
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LEADING WITH INTEGRITY
This campaign is built different.
Major Ret.
Richard Ojeda
Supports working families
Listens in our community
Fights for Veterans' care
Knows you're his boss
Richard
Hudson
In the pocket of billionaires
Puts DC above NC
Helping to tank the VA
Puts party over people
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COMMON QUESTIONS
Get to know Richard’s history of service.
Ret. Major Richard Ojeda was a member of the US Army for 24 years, and his experiences have greatly informed the way he views what serving our nation means. And why the fight for democracy and freedom starts at home.
Richard Ojeda is a retired member of the United States Army. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Army or the DoD.
A warrior on day one.
Richard Ojeda didn’t have connections. He didn’t have money. What he had was guts and a willingness to work hard and fight harder for a better life for his family and community.
Starting as an enlisted soldier straight out of the West Virginia coal fields, he earned every stripe through sweat and sacrifice. After earning his degree from West Virginia State University, he was selected for officer training.
Making the jump from enlisted to officer? That’s one of the toughest climbs in the military. Most don’t make it. Richard did.
By the time he earned his Major’s oak leaves, he’d learned one thing beyond doubt: real leaders aren’t born, they’re forged in service to others.
Leadership forged at war and in peace.
Twenty-four years in the Army took Major Ojeda around the world. Combat deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also South Korea, Honduras, and Jordan – places where the mission was building alliances and training partner forces. Learning that America’s real strength comes from the trust we build and the promises we keep.
You learn things overseas that you can’t learn anywhere else. How to lead when everything’s falling apart. How to build something when people are shooting at you. How to work with folks who don’t speak your language but still need to trust you with their lives.
Every deployment taught him the same lesson: talk is cheap. Action is what counts. And when you’re fighting for something bigger than yourself, you don’t stop until the job is done.
A different kind of mission.
Haiti, January 2010. A 7.0 earthquake leaves over 200,000 dead. When the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere hit, the 20th Engineer Brigade got the call.
Major Ojeda and his unit deployed immediately. No fanfare. No press conferences. Just boots on the ground doing what needed to be done. Clearing rubble. Restoring water systems. Building emergency shelters. Making sure food and medical supplies got where they were needed.
This is the difference between talk and action. While politicians debated, soldiers worked. While cameras rolled elsewhere, engineers rebuilt. That’s military service – you don’t choose your mission, you complete it. Some days, the mission is to fight. Other days, it’s to build. Leaders must be able to do both.
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