Retired Navy SEAL to Run for Senate in Massachusetts as Republican

Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez, a Republican, announced Tuesday he would be entering the U.S. Senate special election to fill the seat of Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry. In a video posted on his campaign website, Gomez begins by announcing in Spanish before continuing in English. "I spent my career as a Navy SEAL and as a businessman right here in Boston," he says. "I'm not a politician, so I'll have a very different kind of campaign." Watch the video below:

The Boston Globe has more on Gomez's bid:

“I’m running because I refuse to be cynical about America or about America’s future,” he said in a lengthy statement released Monday night. “I’m a doer and an optimist by nature and especially about our country. Certainly people will say, ‘This can’t be fixed.’ Well, I’ve spent a good part of my life working on and accomplishing a lot of things most people said were either too hard or impossible.”

His entry to the race sets up a contested Republican primary, pitting Gomez against state Representative Daniel B. Winslow, a former aide to Governor Mitt ­Romney.

Gomez had previously said that he was likely to run, and party insiders have been preparing for his campaign, following the decision by better-known figures, such as former senator Scott Brown, to stay out of the race.

Gomez has begun hiring staff, including Lenny Alcivar, a former campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker, and Gail ­Gitcho, a former aide to ­Romney and Brown.

No matter who wins the nomination, the Republican candidate will have a tough general election campaign. Massachusetts is overwhelmingly Democratic, and both of the two leading Democratic candidates--congressmen Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch--will be formidable opponents. Former senator Scott Brown's decision not to run for Kerry's seat took away the GOP's best opportunity to pick up