Sergio de la Peña is an American politician and retired

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

colonel who was deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs during the

Trump administration Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...

Career

De la Peña retired from the Army as a colonel. During his career, he was also a division chief of the

U.S. Northern Command United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is one of eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense. The command is tasked with providing military support for non-military authorities in the U.S., and protect ...

. De la Peña worked for the private military contractor L-3 before founding de la Peña Consulting, LLC in June 2011. He spent five years leading the consultancy. De la Peña was surrogate for the

Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was formally launched on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, having won the most state prim ...

, and was then part of the Trump transition team assigned to the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

. In 2017, Defense Secretary

James Mattis James Norman Mattis (born September 8, 1950) is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 26th US secretary of defense from 2017 to 2019. During his 44 years in the Marine Corps, he commanded forces in the Persian ...

appointed De la Peña as deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere.

2021 Virginia gubernatorial election

On January 11, 2021, de la Peña announced his candidacy as a Republican candidate for the

2021 Virginia gubernatorial election The 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2021, to elect the next governor of Virginia. The election was concurrent with other elections for Virginia state offices. Incumbent Democratic Governor Ralph Northam was Term li ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pena, Sergio de la Living people People from Chihuahua City People from Roswell, New Mexico University of Iowa alumni United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni Virginia Republicans Candidates in the 2021 United States elections Mexican emigrants to the United States Year of birth missing (living people) Latino conservatism in the United States