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By Joshua Rhett Miller
Senior Reporter
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The widow of an Air Force major who died during an Iran-related combat operation voted Tuesday for Democrat Doug Jones for Alabama governor and other candidates vowing to stop the "illegal" war.
Libby Klinner, 33, said she cast her vote while thinking of what her late husband, Air Force Major John "Alex" Klinner, who died on March 12 during a KC-135 crash in western Iraq, would've wanted.
"Today I voted for Alex," Klinner wrote on Instagram. "He and I talked a lot about politics because it affected us significantly as a military family and as parents. This morning I voted for candidates that he would have supported if he were voting today."
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Klinner said she backed Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Tommy Tuberville in a contest to replace outgoing Governor Kay Ivey. The showdown is a rematch of the 2020 Senate race, in which Tuberville defeated Jones by roughly 20 points.
"I voted for candidates that promise to stop this illegal war, who accept everyone, whether they look and pray like you or not, who prioritize people over profit (no thank you data centers), who advocate for public schools, who treat the military with dignity and respect and not as political leverage, who are willing to work with both sides of the aisle and not just for their own party, who want to be a check on this administration’s abuse of power, who believe health care should be affordable, who think no child should go hungry," Klinner posted.
Alex Klinner did not support Tuberville and regularly criticized the Trump administration, his widow said. Newsweek reached out to Tuberville for comment.
"I voted for Doug Jones (Alex was not [a] Tommy Tuberville fan) and other candidates that uphold these values," her post continued. "Alex struggled serving under an administration that so blatantly views our military members as expendable. And I hate that he died because of it."
Klinner said she hopes her late husband's death prompts voters to "rethink the candidates" they support while opting to "vote like Alex" if he were still alive.
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"Please get out and vote!" the post concluded.
In early September, President Donald Trump downplayed the human toll of the war in Iran, characterizing the conflict as "small potatoes" despite the deaths of 18 American soldiers.
"A lot of people don't call it a war," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on September 4. "I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing."
Trump's remarks echoed those of Vice President JD Vance, who insisted a day earlier that "war" doesn't accurately describe the ongoing military operations against Iran, which began in late February.
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Vance had rejected usage of the term on September 3 while claiming major combat operations had ended months earlier. The vice president also declined to predict at the time if the conflict would conclude prior to November's midterm elections.
Pressed by reporters on his "small potatoes" characterization, Trump compared the conflict in Iran to the Vietnam War, which killed more than 58,000 U.S. troops.
"We lost 18 souls," Trump said on September 4. "One is too much. But in Vietnam we lost tens of thousands of people."
Department of Defense officials identified Klinner in March alongside five other Air Force personnel who died when a KC-135 crashed in western Iraq. The five other service members were identified as Captain Ariana G. Savino, Technical Sergeant Ashley B. Pruitt, Captain Seth R. Koval, Captain Curtis J. Angst and Technical Sergeant Tyler H. Simmons.
Campaign officials for Jones, meanwhile, thanked Klinner for her support at the polls on Tuesday.
"Thank you for your courage in speaking out," Jones' campaign replied on Instagram. "We owe such a debt of gratitude to not only Alex but you and your family for your service and sacrifice. Doug will always have the backs of our service members and military families."
Klinner, a father of three originally from Auburn, Alabama, had been assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, military officials said.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas
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