Wake County female combat veteran, wife and mom joins 2022 U.S. Senate race

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Marjorie Eastman, a female combat veteran from Wake County, has joined the long list of candidates running for North Carolina's hotly contested 2022 U.S. Senate seat.

Eastman, who lives in Cary with her husband (also a veteran) and their young son, announced her candidacy Tuesday.

Eastman, a commander and intelligence officer, served two deployments overseas--once during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the other during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

It was the fall of Afghanistan that sealed Eastman's decision to run for office.

"I'm a soldier, and as a soldier, I want to go to the fight and the fight is in the U.S. Senate," Eastman said

Eastman, a political outsider, is running as a republican against big GOP candidates like former NC Governor, Pat McCrory, and Congressman Ted Budd. Budd has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

"When I was in the military, it wasn't if I was a woman or if I was a male, it was about 'are you tactically and technically proficient? Can you do the job and complete the mission,'" Eastman said. "So for me, I look at who's in the race and I think, wait a second, we have to ask ourselves, are they tactically and technically proficient, and if it's the woman who can do the job, then she should do it."

On the Democratic side, former State Chief Justice Cheri Beasley has entered the race as well as North Carolina State Sen. Jeff Jackson and North Carolina State Sen. Erica Smith.