Keyser says his commitment to service will propel him into U.S. Senate
DENVER – Jon Keyser is a skydiving, decorated Air Force intelligence officer with two kids, a law degree and a great one-liner to take aim at Sen. Michael Bennet in November – if he gets the chance.
“Michael Bennet was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and I have a Bronze Star,” Keyser often says at the end of candidate debates and forums.
Keyser, 34, entered the race as the presumptive favorite of Republican officials in Washington, D.C., hoping to flip Colorado’s second Senate seat to red this year. Sen. Cory Gardner did just that in 2014 when he unseated Democrat Sen. Mark Udall.
Like Gardner, Keyser is from rural Colorado.
Born in Salida and raised in Montrose, Keyser was drawn to the Air Force Academy by visiting his grandparents’ home in Colorado Springs’ Thunderbird Estates neighborhood, where he watched “kids jumping out of airplanes and flying gliders.”
He was about a year into his time at the academy when terrorists felled the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
“A lot of people left. I doubled down,” Keyser said. “I planned on being a pilot. I really appreciate everything the Air Force and the pilots do to contribute to the war but . we were fighting two ground wars. We weren’t fighting air to air. The Air Force was in a support role. I thought the impact I could make was to serve on the ground.”
And he did. Keyser’s Bronze Star citation recognizes him for participating in “31 direct action and counter-terrorism operations, resulting in the capture or elimination of 107 high-value enemy individuals.”
“It was dangerous, and there were friends who were killed,” said Keyser, who is now a major in the reserves. “I believe in service. I believe in protecting our Constitution. That’s why I continue to serve today.”
Keyser recently weathered attacks that he was hyping his military record by releasing documents to verify his story.
The documents highlight his combat missions in Iraq.
But the green candidate – he served only one year in the Colorado House of Representatives before resigning to run for U.S. Senate – has suffered a few missteps.
When a petition gatherer was accused of forging signatures to put Keyser on the ballot, the candidate didn’t immediately comment, and when confronted by a TV reporter on camera, the ensuing exchange made national news in part because Keyser refused to answer the question.
But Keyser has regained some momentum since that setback in the five-man race for the Republican nomination.
He still draws the most attacks from other candidates in the race, as well as from the Democratic Party and other groups supporting Bennet.
Just last week, he was dinged for claiming he was the first in his family to graduate from college when one of his grandfathers had received a two-year degree in mortuary science. The campaign handled the news with humor.
“Thanks to the Woodward- esque reporting of some courageous gumshoes at Buzzfeed, we now know something previously unknown even to Jon’s mother: His grandfather obtained a two-year degree from the University of Minnesota in mortuary science,” Matt Connelly, Keyser’s campaign manager, was quoted saying in Buzzfeed. “To clarify, Jon is the first member of his family to obtain a four-year college degree, and also the first to receive a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq. Congratulations to the sleuths at Buzzfeed; we’re sure the Pulitzer is already in the mail.”
Keyser also scored a coup by being the only candidate to implement a little-used policy in state law that allows candidates to indicate on the ballot that they are self-imposing term limits.
“Two terms is what I think is appropriate,” Keyser said. For U.S. Senate, that’s 12 years in Washington. But the idea of self-imposed term limits also was a key issue for Robert Blaha, who entered the campaign on the promise of coming home after a single term if he couldn’t fulfill basic promises.
Keyser had raised about $562,000 as of June 8, including $150,000 in personal loans to his campaign. It puts him in the middle of the pack, well behind Blaha and Boulder businessman Jack Graham, who have put at least $1 million of their own money into their campaigns.
But Keyser is trying to distinguish himself as the strongest candidate on national security issues, given his direct-combat military service. It’s a distinction that irked candidate Darryl Glenn, who also is an Air Force Academy graduate and served 20 years in acquisitions and logistics.
“I’m the only candidate that understands the threats we face at home and abroad at a very granular level,” Keyser said.
He sometimes answer questions, whether it’s about the economy, or abortion rights or Donald Trump, by pivoting to national security issues.
But Keyser doesn’t hit other policy areas nearly as hard as national security. Perhaps that’s because he served in Iraq and Afghanistan and it was noted in his Air Force Achievement Medal that he “drove intelligence coordination vital to C-130 operations during Operation Jukebox Lotus.”
That was the U.S. response to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.
Keyser, who worked for six years as a corporate attorney at the international law firm Hogan Lovells in Denver, lives in Morrison with his wife, Emma, whom he met at the University of Denver, and his 3-year-old daughter and 9-month-old son.
He wants to fight for fiscally conservative principles and boost the economy by reducing regulation on the private sector.
“I spent years helping people and small businesses and large businesses navigate what is an incredibly complicated regulatory environment,” Keyser said.
“As a business lawyer, I understand what happens when the pen meets the paper.”
Keyser has held firm to his conservative standpoints during the primary, in debates saying he is “pro-life” and supports the availability of legal abortions in three circumstances: “rape, incest and the life of the mother.”
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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644
Twitter @CapitolSchrader
Leon Travis, Jon Keyser and Scott Drinkard laugh after making their landing while skydiving at Out of the Blue Skydiving in Calhan on Sunday, May 29, 2016. Travis comissioned Keyser on his graduation from the United States Air Force Academy. Photo by Ryan Jones, The Gazette.
Jon Keyser and Scott Drinkard make their landing approach while skydiving at Out of the Blue Skydiving in Calhan on Sunday, May 29, 2016. Drinkard was Keyser’s professor of military strategic studies at the United States Air Force Academy and worked with him when he was on the parachute team. Photo by Ryan Jones, The Gazette.
Republican Jon Keyser is running for U.S. Senate. He was speaking at a debate for Republican candidates at UCCS Wednesday, June 8, 2016. (photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette)