About Anthony
Earned, Not Inherited
Everything I have, I built from the ground up. No family connections. No trust fund. No political machine. Just work, loss, and a refusal to shut up about what's broken.
I grew up in Foster City and I currently live in Belmont with my wife Anne, who is also a Marine Corps veteran, and our two boys.
My brother Andrew was killed in action in Ramadi, Iraq, back in 2004, when I was 18 and still in high school. I enlisted in the Marine Corps the next day. Two years later, I was in Iraq myself. I got shot, survived two IED blasts, and lost close friends. I came home disabled, mentally broken, and cast aside by society.
I started at community college, went to UCSD, and then Harvard where I got my Master’s in Public Administration. I built veteran nonprofits, worked at the Pentagon doing financial oversight of major defense programs, and then spent years in the defense industry doing financial oversight for one of the biggest defense contractors in the country.
I found problems. Not small ones. Systemic problems with how the entire industry operates, how money flows, how accountability is structured to fail. I called them out. The reporting was picked up by More Perfect Union in an exposé about waste in the defense industry. The retaliation cost me my career.
My dad is a Vietnam War refugee. My mom is Mexican and Native American, permanently disabled, and living in an assisted living home. My son is autistic. The system is not built for families like ours. I’m not rich or politically connected. I’m pretty much just a dude in Belmont with a Harvard degree and a strong opinion that this district and all Americans deserve better.
I’m running for Congress because I’ve spent my entire adult life inside the systems that are failing people, and I’m done watching career politicians collect paychecks while pretending the problems are too complicated to fix. They’re not complicated. They’re profitable. And that’s why nobody in power is fixing them.
The Path
How I Got Here
2004
Gold Star Family
Anthony's brother Andrew was killed in action in Ramadi, Iraq. Anthony was 18 and still in high school. He enlisted in the Marine Corps the next day.
2004-2008
US Marine Corps Service
Stationed in Okinawa, Japan with Combat Assault Battalion and 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion. Deployed to Iraq in the 2nd Battle of Ramadi. Gunshot wound, survived two IED blasts, and lost close friends. Came home disabled and struggling.
2008-2014
Education Against the Odds
Started at community college, transferred to UC San Diego, and graduated. Began rebuilding a life the system wasn't designed to support.
2014-2017
Veteran Nonprofit Leadership
Co-founded and served as CIO of a veteran nonprofit, building systems to connect veterans with the resources and community they needed after service.
2017-2018
Harvard Kennedy School
Earned a Master's in Public Administration from Harvard, studying government accountability, defense policy, and institutional reform.
2019-2021
Pentagon Analyst
Worked as a management and program analyst at the Department of Defense, reporting to the Deputy Secretary of the Army. Helped create the Security Cooperation Workforce Development Program, which shapes how the U.S. builds the workforce behind its foreign defense partnerships. Provided oversight on contractor programs including the KC-46 Tanker, P-8A Poseidon, and Presidential Air Force One (VC-25B).
2022-2025
Defense Oversight & Whistleblowing
Spent years doing financial oversight at a major defense contractor on multibillion-dollar weapons systems including the Zumwalt-class destroyer, Hypersonic Missile development, OSAM-1, and SPIDER. Called out systemic fraud across the industry. Featured in a More Perfect Union exposé about waste in the defense contractor sector.
2025-Present
ProConcordia & Running for Congress
Founded ProConcordia, a civic technology company organized as a Public Benefit Corporation for the public good, tracking federal legislation, elected officials, executive orders, and Supreme Court rulings, with state legislature coverage in development. Filed to run for Congress in California's 15th District to fight for the representation this district deserves.
If You Want to Know More
This Is War: “24 Dang”
In 2018, I told my story to Wondery’s This Is War. It covers my brother Andrew, the Second Battle of Ramadi, the friends I came home without, and what happened after I got back. Some of it is hard.
Produced by Wondery and Incongruity Media.
If you’re struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is 988, then press 1.
In Print
Combat Veterans: The Battle to Find Peace After Service
Also in 2018, I wrote a piece for the Harvard Kennedy School Review on the civilian-military divide and why most of what civilian society calls “supporting veterans” really only reaches officers. 83% of us who serve are enlisted. The piece is about what reintegration actually looks like for that group, and why it usually doesn’t happen.
Harvard Kennedy School Review, June 2018.
As Featured In
More Perfect Union: where Pentagon waste really goes
More Perfect Union built this piece around the same waste, fraud, and abuse I had been calling out from inside the defense industry. I appear in it as the inside source. The bigger story is what they uncover about how the system is designed: five contractors, cost-plus contracts, layered profit margins, and a Pentagon that has never passed an audit.
Why I’m Running
Government should serve people. Not corporations. Not billionaires. Not the politically connected.
CA-15 is one of the most educated, most diverse, most politically engaged districts in the country. It deserves someone who matches that energy, not someone who coasts on incumbency and name recognition while cashing checks from the same industries that are making life harder for everyone.
I believe healthcare is a right. I believe housing is a right. I believe that corporations and billionaires have too much power over our government and that the system is designed to keep it that way. I believe that the people who start wars should not profit from them. I believe that whistleblowers who expose fraud should be protected, not punished. And I believe that the people in this district are smart enough to see the difference between someone who fights for them and someone who plays the game.
I’m not taking corporate PAC money. I’m not taking money from super PACs. I’m not wealthy, I’m not politically connected, and I can’t fund this campaign myself. Every dollar comes from someone who believes this district deserves better. That is not a gimmick. That is a principle. And it is the only way I know how to do this with a clear conscience.
Telling the truth cost me my career. I’m running for Congress because the truth still needs someone willing to say it out loud, even when the powerful people in the room would rather you didn’t.
