A version of the following article appeared in the Monday, July 20, 2026 edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Through 10 examples of leadership, Rye Barcott makes the case that courage and service can bridge America’s political divide
Former U.S. Marine Corps officer Rye Barcott, who is based in Charlotte, recently published a book, “Courage Can Save US,” which profiles nine veterans and a former FBI agent who worked across party lines and carried the spirit of service into public life. Here, Barcott is pictured with his dog, Cisco. (Photo by Jim Morrill for The Charlotte Ledger)
by Jim Morrill
Rye Barcott knows about service.
He was an undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill in 2000 when he won a grant to study ethnic violence in the Nairobi slum of Kibera. In 2001, he co-founded a nonprofit called Carolina for Kibera. Twenty-five years later, what’s now CFK Africa provides health care, education and other programs to 200,000 Kenyans a year.
Barcott continued to run the organization while serving in 2006 as a Marine captain in Iraq. For that, ABC News named him one of its “Persons of the Year.”
In 2017, the Charlotte resident co-founded With Honor, a “cross-partisan” group designed to put more veterans of military and public service into elected office. The late David Gergen, adviser to four presidents and Barcott’s mentor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, was a cofounder. Its advisory panel included J.D. Vance.
Now Barcott, 47, has written “Courage Can Save US, Ten Extraordinary Americans and the Fight for Our Future.” Timed for America’s 250th birthday, the book profiles five Democrats and five Republicans, including Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Republican Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Don Bacon of Nebraska.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin praised the “inspiring stories” of “courage, character and common purpose.” The book reached No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list and landed its author on CBS’s “Face the Nation” as well as interviews with NPR and news outlets around the country.
“I chose the 10 deliberately,” Barcott, who is registered unaffiliated, told The Ledger. “I don't agree with all their decisions, but I fundamentally respect that they are in it for the service.”
“Courage,” he wrote, “is a choice: a decision to advance the common good despite the risks.”
Courage as a form of service
One of the 10 is Democrat Wes Moore, a Rhodes scholar and an Army captain in Afghanistan who was elected governor of Maryland in 2022. “Service will save us” was a campaign mantra.
For Barcott, service and courage are virtually interchangeable.
“If you define courage as I do, as a form of service, it can be many different types,” he said. “It can be (to) your family. It can be the Marines or the soldiers to your right or left. It can be your community. It can be your faith. ... It can be your country. But it is not yourself.”
Sherrill, the only woman profiled, attended the U.S. Naval Academy at a time when only 10% of midshipmen were women. This was around the time of the Navy’s “Tailhook” scandal, in which dozens of women were groped and assaulted during an aviator’s convention in Las Vegas.
Sherrill spent her junior summer on an aircraft carrier, the only woman on a ship of almost 5,000. Her mother recalled a letter from her daughter with the sketch of a face with a single tear. Sherrill went on to become a helicopter pilot.
Sherrill had the advantage of two supportive parents. Not everybody did.
Bacon’s parents fought and finally divorced. A new stepmother was bipolar and volatile. Several siblings suffered from mental illness. Bacon eventually found his way to the Air Force, where he became a brigadier general.
Kelly and his twin brother, Scott, had a father who struggled with alcohol. One night, they found him in the living room with a pistol in his mouth. They persuaded him to put it down. Kelly went on to fly combat missions in Iraq as a Navy pilot – and later commanded a space shuttle as an astronaut.
“Many of the 10 faced extraordinary trauma early on,” Barcott said. “And the thing that they all had in common was that they … all demonstrated tremendous resilience over the scope of their lives.”
‘A refreshing breath of fresh air’
The book recounts examples of courage in the military and, in the case of Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, in the FBI. Each of the 10 had taken the With Honor pledge “to serve with integrity, civility and courage” and in politics, work across party lines.
New to Congress in 2019, Sherrill voted against the re-election of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In 2024, she was one of the first Democrats to urge President Biden to withdraw after his disastrous debate performance.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana was rebuked by fellow Republicans when he cosponsored the CHIPS Act with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Critics said the effort to boost U.S. production of semiconductor chips smacked of corporate welfare or even communism.
But few Republicans have clashed with President Trump as much as Bacon.
The self-described Reagan conservative has bucked the president on tariffs, Ukraine and other issues. He called Trump’s effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico “dumb” and his threats to take over Greenland “foolish.” To Bacon, Barcott’s book “is a story that we need to talk more about.”
“In the end, we’re Americans first before we’re Democrats or Republicans, and we need more of that in Congress,” Bacon told The Ledger. “The mindset is we have to win the next election. That means you have to stick with the captain of your team and do things you disagree with.”
Barcott is CEO of With Honor, which has raised $100M since its inception in support of more than 250 candidates. Before that, he ran a solar investment company with fellow veteran Dan McCready. Earlier, he was chief of staff for Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers.
The For Country Caucus is a group of nearly 40 Congressional lawmakers and veterans from both parties affiliated with With Honor. Its co-chair is Democratic Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate. Though not in the book, he said, “The American people are really tired of the divisive nature of Washington, D.C. …The title of the book says it all — courage can save us.”
“It’s a refreshing breath of fresh air that, ‘Hey, Washington may not be broken,’” he said. “And there’s hope after all.”
Davis called Barcott “one of those individuals getting things done, working in the background, pulling people together.”
“He’s an incredible American,” he said. “And he’s from North Carolina as well.”
Jim Morrill covered politics and government for The Charlotte Observer for 38 years before retiring in December 2020. He can be reached at [email protected].