Retired Air Force officer and GOP hopeful lays out Senate campaign priorities

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. and retired FedEx pilot Tony Grady thinks his broad skill set separates him from a crowded Republican primary field in the U.S. Senate race, where he hopes to come out on top and defeat Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in November 2024.

The eight-year Nevada resident threw his hat into the ring in early August, joining a large field of candidates that include other veterans, a dermatologist and a real estate broker, among others.

Grady wants to use his background in the military, the Department of Defense and the business industry to improve economic growth and national security in the United States, he said.

“What is compelling me to do what I’m doing, is that I want to serve Nevadans because I want not only the state of Nevada to do better, but I want our country to do better,” Grady said. “I’ve had a life of service, and I want to continue that service.”

Grady said he served in the Air Force as a test pilot commanding a B-2 stealth bomber squadron before working in the Department of Defense’s Pentagon on the bomber portion of the president’s budget. He then flew for FedEx as a pilot and instructor for 20 years and started a biotechnology firm called Synerbotics, he said. Grady has been married for 40 years and has four grown children in a variety of fields, from the military to molecular biology, he said.

“I just want people to know that my kids are successful, and I know how to help young people be successful,” Grady said. “And I believe that we should elect leaders that want all American children to be successful.”

Wanting to focus on economic growth and education, Grady previously ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 but lost to now-Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony by nearly 13,000 votes.

“Even though I didn’t prevail in it, I decided to stay in politics,” Grady said. “I don’t like what’s going on in our nation right now. I have four children and four grandchildren, and I believe that the United States can do better and I want them to have better options than I see on the horizon.”

If elected, the first steps Grady would take would be to bring the country back to energy independence by opening the Keystone pipeline, drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and expanding leases to oil companies, he said.

He would also work on border security — starting by firing the current director of the Department of Homeland Security — to stop human trafficking and the flow of fentanyl into the country. Grady also wants to prioritize improving the country’s position on the world stage and get back into foreign policy.

In response to a question about Rosen being ranked as the ninth most bipartisan senator in the 2021 congressional session, Grady said he thinks Rosen is a big rubber stamp to Biden policies that are strangling the country.

“There’s nothing about Senator Rosen that I want to emulate,” Grady said. “I will evaluate all of the legislation that comes my way, and I will act in a way that is in the best interest of Nevadans and of all Americans. So it’s not a matter of working across the aisle, so to speak. It’s more of a matter of, ‘what do we need as Americans?’”

On the issues:

Economy: Grady wants to remove red tape and regulations that hamstring businesses.

Water: Grady would be in the middle of negotiations with other states. He would work to negotiate with California to get desalination plants and use ocean water to backfill places like the Colorado River.

Environment: Grady said it comes down to following the hard science and not dealing with hysteria. “I’m very upset with how a lot of young people are being made afraid of their future because of global warming. And that’s just not something that is useful,” he said.

On whether he would support national abortion restrictions, Grady said he does not deal with hypotheticals. He is pro-life and said he would represent Nevada, where the law is settled.

Elections: Grady said in 2020 there were many election rules that were implemented, such as ballot harvesting, that gave Americans a bad feeling about the conduct of elections, and he thinks those concerns are valid. He’d like to see voter ID and signature verification implemented, as well as an election holiday.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com.