Biden border betrayal, political violence, and devotion to veterans spark captain’s congressional bid

To honor his brothers and sisters in arms this Veterans Day, Captain Mike Bouchard, who just announced his congressional candidacy, pledges to protect American interests, especially right here at home.

Bouchard — a 32-year-old Michigan Army National Guard captain and the son of longtime Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard — learned firsthand the importance of an America First foreign policy after he witnessed a dramatic change at the U.S. southern border immediately after Joe Biden took office in 2021, when Bouchard was still full-time active duty in the Army. Within days, President Biden closed major immigration checkpoints, unleashing what Bouchard described as a “manufactured” immigration crisis.

‘They were scared of an overwhelming US response.’

What’s worse, drug cartels have developed sophisticated capabilities that “rival some of the stuff we have,” Bouchard told Blaze News. “We need to step up our game to combat them. Because if we don’t, we’re opening ourselves up to a lot of unsavory things.”

Bouchard also noted that U.S. military strength was undermined during the Biden administration by woke infiltration. “We had a week-long training canceled to have briefings. One of the briefings was a transgender Navy Seal who was brought in to teach us about empathy,” he recalled.

Now that Trump is back, Bouchard says American military might has been restored.

Bouchard has just returned from a nine-month deployment to Iraq and was overseas when hostilities between Israel and Iran erupted in June. He claims that he and all the other American servicemen and women stationed in the Middle East were not directly targeted at that time because of our military’s “lethality” under Trump.

“They were scared of an overwhelming U.S. response,” he said.

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Photo given to Blaze News

Even though the world seems to respect American military power once again, Bouchard noted that radicals in America are no longer abiding by American values and are instead resorting to “political violence” to settle differences.

Bouchard claimed the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which occurred while Bouchard was still in Iraq, convinced him that he had to jump into the political fray and begin a run for Congress as soon as he returned home.

“I didn’t make the final decision to do this until the day I got home. I got home. I thought about it. … I prayed on it. I did some research. This is the right time,” he explained.

Bouchard is now running as a Republican for the 10th district in Michigan, a seat currently occupied by Republican Rep. John James, who is running for governor. Should Bouchard win, he says he will be able to continue serving military members, veterans, and all military families through legislative action.

Bouchard worries about veteran unemployment and alarming rates of suicide. He also wants to prioritize addressing veteran homelessness, child care, and medical care. “Veterans Affairs is a massive bureaucracy, but what we can do is put in systems and processes to make it more efficient,” he said.

No matter what happens in his 2026 congressional race, Bouchard indicated to Blaze News that he will never forget or abandon his “friends” in uniform, especially his fellow paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division.

“They have some of the best men and women in the world. I mean, when you jump out of airplanes for a living, it tests your mettle. It tests your character,” he said.

“The people who stay there you can trust in any circumstance.”

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