Dan P. DeBono

Dan P. DeBono

Republican

BACKGROUND: DeBono, 49, of Northport, is making his first run for elected office and is also running on the Conservative Party line. DeBono has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and an MBA from the Booth School of Business at University of Chicago. DeBono enlisted in the U.S. Navy, became a Navy SEAL and rose to rank of lieutenant, serving from 1990 to 1994.,He worked as a banker and  was in investment management.  He owns his own investment and advisory firm. A Huntington GOP committee member, DeBono also assisted in fundraising for the presidential campaigns of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He is married with two children.

ISSUES: DeBono, calling himself an "independent thinker,” says he wants to strengthen the middle class, reining in giant mega-corporations by enforcing antitrust laws, and curtail the Federal Reserve while continuing deregulation. He also wants to improve local infrastructure, create an “elite military” and protect the Constitution from attack on speech, privacy, defined borders and the right to bear arms.  He also says he favors  a $15-an-hour minimum wage, while shutting down the Import-Export Bank and the H1B program, which allows high-tech foreign workers to come in and often displace American workers. He said the country has “never been stronger” since President Donald Trump took office.