Jerrod Sessler (born August 26, 1969) is an American

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

political candidate and former

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

driver. He drove the #4

Ford Taurus The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from 1985 to 2019. From 1985 to 2009, Ford marketed the Taurus alongside its rebadged variant, the Mercury Sable. Four generati ...

in the

Whelen All-American Series The NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series (formerly the Whelen All-American Series, Winston Racing Series and the Dodge Weekly Series) is a points championship for NASCAR-sanctioned local short-track motor racing in the United States and Canad ...

and the now-defunct NASCAR Northwest Series, which also had

Greg Biffle Gregory Jack Biffle (born December 23, 1969), nicknamed "the Biff", is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. After racing in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series in the mid-1990s, he was recommended to Jack Roush by former race ...

and Kevin Hamlin as drivers. From 1987 to 1989, Sessler was a

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

Petty Officer 3rd Class on the

USS Constellation (CV-64) USS ''Constellation'' (CVA-64/CV-64) was a supercarrier and the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the "new constellation of stars" on the flag of the United States. One of the fastest ships in the Navy, as proven by ...

. He is a Stage IV cancer survivor who maintains a vegan, raw foods diet. He moved to

Burien, Washington Burien ( ) is a suburban city in King County, Washington, United States, located south of Seattle on Puget Sound. As of the 2020 census, Burien's population was 52,066, which is a 56.3% increase since incorporation in 1993, making it the 25th ...

in 1974 and was recognized as Burien's 1st Gold Member by Discover Burien in 2015. He is the founder of HomeTask.com. One subsidiary, Yellow Van Handyman, was recognized by ''

Entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

'' magazine as a "Franchise 500" firm in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013. Sessler lived in King County until he ran for public office in 2022, promptly buying a ranch in

Yakima Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

. After losing the primary, he moved back to King County. In 2024, he moved back to Yakima to run for office.

Political positions

Sessler was in Washington, D.C. when the attack on the Capitol occurred, and subsequently stated that he did not breach the Capitol. Sessler has made unsubstantiated claims that the riot was a "setup" perpetrated by paid "agitators" and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

meant to discredit

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and his supporters. He has made false and discredited claims of election fraud in regard to the 2020 presidential election, including claims that Trump won. Sessler has made Anti-Islam comments, including his belief that

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

should not be allowed to serve in Congress. On an X post, he doubled down on these claims, responding that " at I said is true...it is nonsensical for people who love and appreciate all that it is to be American to vote for a Muslim, especially a radical one. Just because it is legal doesn’t mean it is helpful to the country, to our kids or to our future." Sessler supports implementing a federal 30%

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

nationwide on all goods in an effort to contribute to reducing the deficit and paying down the

national debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit occ ...

. This was previously a major part of Sessler's platform, however after receiving criticism over his support of such a policy, all mentions of have now been deleted from his campaign website, although he has not explicitly retracted his support from the policy.

Tax issues

In 2022, The Tri-City Herald newspaper reported that taxes were past due on Sessler's Benton County property.

Accusation of threats

In 2022, Sessler was accused of making threats towards a Benton County code enforcement officer when he visited Sessler's property to investigate a claim that someone on his property was living in a house under construction. As reported by the

Tri-City Herald The ''Tri-City Herald'' is a twice-weekly newspaper based in Kennewick, Washington, United States. Owned by The McClatchy Company, the newspaper serves southeastern Washington state, including the three cities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland ...

, Sessler told the officer that he would get his gun and "deal with him" if the officer returned to the property.

Electoral history

Sessler ran for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

as a member of the Republican Party in Washington's 4th congressional district against incumbent

Dan Newhouse Daniel Milton Newhouse (born July 10, 1955) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for . The district covers much of the central third of the state, including Yakima and the Tri-Cities. Before his election to Congress, Newh ...

, but lost in the primary. Sessler announced a second bid for Washington's 4th congressional district in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, once again challenging Newhouse. His campaign received the endorsement of former president Trump. In the

blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a Partisan primary, primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office wit ...

on August 6, Sessler came in first and advanced to the general election against Newhouse. Sessler announced a series of seven debates against Newhouse, whose campaign had not agreed to participate on those specific dates. In January 2025, Sessler announced a third bid for Congress in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

while at a rally supporting the January 6 rioters.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sessler, Jerrod 1969 births Candidates in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections Living people NASCAR drivers Racing drivers from Washington (state) Sportspeople from King County, Washington Protesters in or near the January 6 United States Capitol attack Candidates in the 2024 United States House of Representatives elections