Brian Mast is the winner of Tuesday’s GOP primary for Florida’s 18th congressional district.
He tells Breibart News from his victory party in Palm City that he did not know he was close to winning until his opponents started attacking him in the last two weeks of the campaign.
“You don’t sling mud at the guy in last place,” said Brian Mast, the medically-retired Army staff sergeant, who gave both legs in Afghanistan, while serving with units under the command of Joint Special Operations Command.
“They came after me the hardest because they knew that I had the winning message,” said the combat veteran, who strongly endorsed GOP nominee for president Donald Trump.
The former explosives ordnance disposal specialist was the target of smears, because he earned his Harvard University degree through the school’s extension program, founded by John Lowell Jr., in 1835 as a lecture series for working people. In 191o, Lowell’s lectures program became a fully-accredited college program, which now has 14,000 enrolled students.
According to the extension school’s website:
We are Harvard—extended to the world for every type of adult learner. Our students come to us from every time zone, every culture and career background, every age from 18 to 89.
We are a fully accredited Harvard school. Our degrees and certificates are adorned with the Harvard University insignia. They carry the weight of that lineage. Our graduates walk at University commencement and become members of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Mast said the main issues in the campaign, where he connected with the voters were environment disaster created by the Army Corps of Engineers, when they deliberately forced freshwater from Lake Okeechobee into the salt water estuaries along Florida’s Treasure Coast and the criminal mismanagement of the local Veterans Affairs facilities.