SCVTV and KHTS AM-1220 will be looking at each of the candidates running for the 25th Congressional District seat ahead of the June 3 primary election.

Evan Thomas

[KHTS] – Evan Thomas, a retired Air Force squad commander and self-described “newcomer” to politics, is throwing his hat into the ring for the 25th Congressional District seat held by Congressman Buck McKeon, R-Santa Clarita.

“I’m pretty much a total newcomer to politics,” said Thomas, a Democrat who lives with his wife in Lancaster after 28 years in the Air Force.

Thomas retired three years ago, after serving all over the world, he said, including a stint as squadron commander for the unit that test-piloted the F-22.

“I’ve sort of always had it in my career to do something beyond my own personal good,” Thomas said, describing how he was taught “to think of the nation before yourself.”

After the debates over sequestration and then the shutdown, he realized it was time for a change, when asked what spurred his run for office.

“The last few years, I’ve been growing more and more frustrated (with the federal government),” he said.

Thomas, who teaches at Edwards Air Force Base on a part-time basis, said his frustration reached a boiling point over the summer.

“There were all of these things that, to me, said they don’t appear to put the needs of their district, and indeed the greater needs of the nation, ahead of their own political ambition,” he said.

Thomas said he was even more jaded when he heard the GOP’s talking points on the solution – that we need to take away seniors’ safety net and welfare programs in order to restore military spending.

Thomas said this kind of rhetoric wouldn’t help the military in the long run, because it wasn’t a feasible solution – which was what the men and women of the armed services needed.

“Im not interested in changing careers at this point,” Thomas said, explaining that he wanted to help the government “get back to basics.

There’s a common belief that the federal government can’t get things done, and he hopes to change that, he said.

He wants to some of whom his constituents say, “I feel like that representative listened to me,” he said.

“The things I really want to focus on are the things I hear from people in the area,” he said. “And do the No. 1 job that people send you there to do – pass budget bills and pass them on time,” he said, “and let the economy grow.”