Yep, you read that right. Deborah Johns, former vice chair of the California-based Tea Party Express, announced she is endorsing Rep. Mike McIntyre (D., N.C.). She is also questioning the military record of McIntyre’s opponent:
Iraq war veteran Ilario Pantano, who’s challenging the seven-term Democrat, was charged by the Marines in 2004 with two counts of premeditated murder for shooting two Iraqi civilians. But the charges were dropped a year later and the case never went to trial. He wrote a book about the experience.
Activist Deborah Johns said Pantano “is not a war hero.”
“It is people like that that give all our military a bad name,” she told the Associated Press.
Pantano has already received the backing of a number of Tea Party groups. Johns, the mother of a Marine, has spoken out against Pantano before, when she backed his opponent Will Breazeale in the Republican primary. She said McIntyre is the first Democrat she’s endorsed.