Ex-Navy SEAL Runs For Senate Seat: Gabriel Gomez Biography

Businessman and Ex-Navy SEAL, Gabriel Gomez, officially launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. The seat was formerly held by Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry.

So who is Gabriel Gomez?

Gabriel Gomez is a new generation of Republican leader with a great American story.

Gabriel, 47, was born in Los Angeles and is the son of Colombian immigrants. With his mother only knowing a few words of English, Gabriel grew up speaking Spanish before learning English. Like so many other new American families, his parents overcame hardships to create a better life for their children. Gabriel’s upbringing in a grateful, first generation American family instilled in him a duty to give back to his country and led him to successfully seek appointment to the United States Naval Academy. Graduating from Annapolis with merit, Gabriel began his Navy service by earning an invitation to flight school and quickly earned his wings. Gabriel served the country flying E2-C Hawkeyes and C2-A Greyhounds off aircraft carriers.

With a growing sense of obligation and duty, and a continuing desire to excel within the Navy, Gomez pursued a transfer into the Navy SEALS, an elite unit where only 20 percent of applicants complete the arduous training. Gabriel was warned that if he failed to make the cut, he would lose his status as a Navy pilot. He succeeded as a SEAL with distinction, becoming the class leader during training and a platoon commander upon completion.

During Gabriel’s first detachment as a SEAL platoon commander, he met his wife, Sarah, who was a Peace Corps volunteer as a special education teacher in the West Indies.

Gabriel Gomez is one of a very small number of Americans who have served as both a Navy aircraft carrier pilot and a Navy SEAL officer. As a SEAL commander working overseas, Gabriel adopted the SEAL’s “team first” ethic as his own.

Leaving the Navy in 1996, Gabriel went back to school, received his MBA from Harvard Business School and put his leadership and teamwork experience to use in the private sector. As a Principal with Boston-based investment firm Advent International, Gabriel helped pension funds, endowments, and retirement systems invest for their members’ retirement. He also helped grow smaller, regional businesses into national, household names – like apparel company Lululemon. He experienced how onerous taxes and excessive regulation are barriers to job creation. He also learned what it takes to help businesses and employees prosper and thrive.

Settling in Cohasset with his wife Sarah and their four children, Gabriel coaches for the Cohasset Youth Baseball and Softball Association. He has also served as a volunteer on a number of town committees, and is the President of the Navy SEAL Foundation of New England.

Gabriel Gomez has spent much of his life giving back to the country that gave him so much. He has actively served to ensure our country’s freedom and seen others make an even greater sacrifice. He has worked to honor the opportunities presented him, and has strived to realize the American dream his parents sacrificed to make possible for him.

Today our country is in trouble. We are deeply in debt, our budget is out of control, and we face numerous global threats. Gabriel sees politicians in Washington more willing to bicker and fight than to listen and learn, and too little gets done. Now more than ever, Massachusetts needs a leader in Washington with Gabriel’s experience working with others to deliver results.

All his life, Gabriel Gomez has been blessed with great opportunity and has fought for, and earned, what he’s achieved. Now he will fight to earn the people’s vote for the opportunity to become the next United States Senator from Massachusetts.