Brewer discusses election chances, national challenges during Sidney stop

Col. Tom Brewer promises to give a real voice to Nebraskans in the third Congressional district.

Brewer, who hopes to replace Adrian Smith as western Nebraska's representative to U.S. Congress, is a veteran of the armed services who survived six gunshot wounds and a rocket propelled grenade attack while deployed in Afghanistan.

"I think if you look at the third district and the one thing they've lacked for the last eight years is a congressman who's aggressive, who is willing to take on issues and take on different parties and groups and be that voice that they need," Brewer said.

Brewer spent 36 years commanding troops in combat. Providing solid leadership is key to this congressional position, Brewer said.

"I think those skill sets will be invaluable in Congress," Brewer said. "If you compare that to Adrian's life, he's not had any training or experience related to leadership it's all been about just individual and his course in life."

Two months ago, Brewer thought it would be extremely difficult to usurp Adrian Smith, a sitting congressman who sits on the ways and means committee.

"That's a pretty tall hill to climb," Brewer said. "But since then after making several loops of Nebraska, the turnouts have been great."

The citizens of the third district shared their desire for a representative who will serve as a true advocate for western Nebraska instead of treating the position like any other job, Brewer said.

"If I can get to enough places, with the remaining time, if I can do well in the debate that we have set for the 25th of April, I think the chances are very good of surprising not only Adrian but the entire Republican party and coming out on the winning end of things come the 13th of May," Brewer said.

The debate will take place in Scottsbluff at the University of Nebraska research center auditorium at 5:30 p.m. The state's primary will take place May 13.

Now that Brewer has put treatments for leukemia behind him, he's had a much easier time traveling the state and participating in events, he said.

"The chemo does take a terrible toll on your ability to be on top of your game and to able to put in those incredibly long days that you need to put in order to be successful," Brewer said.

This treatment caused some additional challenges for Brewer during his campaign, he said.

As a former student at Moscow State University and the University of Leningrad in the old Soviet Union and someone who traveled to Ukraine during a counter narcotics mission in Afghanistan, Brewer knows that the citizens of Ukraine were worried about a Russian invasion years ago.

"I think they feel emboldened to do more," Brewer said.

He believes many of the other countries around Russia and Ukraine are in danger of invasion as well.

"So, I think if (Vladimir) Putin had his way he would simply re-establish the old Soviet empire and he's gonna do it a piece at a time," Brewer said. "With the need for Europe to have the oil from Russia, I don't see NATO taking any action to stop them. We have no capability to do anything in that region, so as a result of that I think they will continue to take what they want with little or no resistance."

He believes the United States doesn't have many options.

"Unfortunately we put ourselves in a position, there's not a lot we can do," Brewer said. "I think the decision to pull the missile warning system and missile launch system out of Poland and the Czech Republic was a wrong-headed decision that the president made when he first took office."

If it were Brewer's choice he would re-establish a partnership with those countries and put that missile system and its radar back into working order.

"Then Russia would understand that there is a cause and effect," Brewer said. "If they want to do those things, we are gonna do things."

He believes the countries around Russia could better defend themselves if they had counter-tank weapons.

"Russians are notorious for using tanks to get whatever they want," Brewer said. "If they sustained high enough casualties I think they would probably quit invading countries and doing the things that they've been doing."