Stolen Valor? At the 2024 Nevada County Fair, Jessica Morse claimed to have served in the military, then changed her story after being questioned by a military family. This occurred on the heels of national headlines spotlighting Democrat Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz being accused of stolen valor. Witnesses share their observations of what happened. 

It was a warm summer day a little before sunset at the Nevada County Fair last week when a family waited at the gate to buy their entrance tickets. They were approached by Jessica Morse, Democrat candidate for U.S. Congress, who was making her way down the line passing out literature and campaigning. 

Jeremy Sheckels remembers how his conversation with Morse started. “My dad, he served in the U.S. Military, for the Marines. We were in line and Jessica Morse was in front of us talking to another patron of the fair. As we were approaching her, she was telling the person in front of us that she had served in the military.”

The two men decided to ask her more about her service. “The line had moved forward in the gate, and we were next in line to talk to Jessica. I said, "Before you go any further, I would like to know about your military experience as you were telling the person ahead of me.” 

Morse responded that she “served in the military.” When Sheckels pressed her about where she served, she claimed she “got sent to Baghdad.” The father was excited to meet another veteran and asked if she “was in the forward or the rear.” According to Sheckels, she replied, “Oh I was in the forward. I was getting shot at.” 

When he started to question her story, Morse became nervous. “You could tell at that point that the gig was up. She back-pedaled for a little bit on the conversation… she moved back a person and tried to fizzle out.” He asked if she had a photo of herself serving. Morse said she didn’t have her phone on her. Then, Morse finally admitted that she “worked with” the military, and didn’t “serve in” the military. 

Morse then proceeded to change her story, saying she was a defense contractor. “If you’re a defense contractor, you’re not on the front line,” Sheckels says, reflecting on the conversation, adding that defense contractors also don’t usually expose the work they do overseas. 

Sheckels believes that she was counting on a moving line to prevent people from asking too many questions about her claims. “When you’re doing all the hand shaking and all the back patting, her primary reason for being there is she knew the line was going to move rapidly; nobody was going to challenge her.” 

A bystander who retired from local law enforcement witnessed the exchange, saying, “I heard the lady running for Congress responding to the guy. ‘I was shot at in combat, I served in the Middle East, I was at Camp Victory, I was in Iraq…’” and when Sheckels asked her what branch she served in and who she served under, the bystander said, “She was dodging, dodging, like she was caught in lie.” He remarked that the father and son talking to Morse didn’t step out of line and were peaceful, but at the same time were “justifiably irked.” 

“Why Would You Lie About That?”

Sheckels remembers replying to Morse, “Just so you know, there’s a big difference in that. Why would you lie about that?” Sheckels says Morse replied, “Well, I’m sorry, but you startled me.”

Sheckels responded to her, saying “you have zero reason to be startled about me asking you about your past history in our United States Military.” He believed that if a simple question about her background startles her, she doesn’t need to be in the U.S. Congress. “She wouldn’t last five minutes walking through the streets of D.C.” Sheckels said.

“I started to say, what you are basically doing is stolen valor. Right at that moment, the lane for the fair moved forward again and I looked at her and I said, look, you’re a lying politician. I heard what you said in front of me and I witnessed what you said to my face.” 

Witnesses were catching on to the disagreement. According to Sheckels, a bystander who heard the interaction approached him and said it was the wildest thing he had ever heard. 

Sheckels remembers that another man waiting in line tapped him on the shoulder and said “I knew what she said to you… man that was astronomical that she would try to lie about being in the military.”

After briefly speaking with the bystanders, Sheckels looked back over to find Morse. 

“I turned around, and she’s huddled up with all the people [who were] passing out all the flyers, and it was like a collaboration.” Sheckels believes Morse was taking cover, concerned that she had been caught in her lie. 

“She knew what she did was wrong. If you were in the United States Military, and someone questioned you, you got questioned to the point that you got drilled, you wouldn’t not know the answers. If you didn’t know the answers, you weren’t in the military.” 

Sheckels says that Morse was bold in making her false claims. “If it’s that comfortable and it’s that much of a lie, she’s got it coaxed into her mind, it worked one time, it’ll work again. That’s just like the story of the thief. He can steal once and get away with it. You think he’s gonna quit right then and there? Now he’s going to steal again. It’s not if, it’s when. And she hit the ‘when’ when I walked up to her. The voice of reason was there for her that night.”

“Walking around the fair, it settled me so wrong hearing that. Having a father who served in the military, having lost friends that have served in the military. It’s just appalling to even pull something like that. In a time when we’re seeing the lowest of the low in our country, you’re just as low.”

Jessica Morse Stripped of Her False Ballot Designation - Twice

It turns out that this is not the first time Jessica Morse has lied on her resume. When she ran for Congress in 2018, she listed a false ballot designation. A ballot designation is the profession you choose to have listed next to your name on the ballot for voters to see. 

According to Ben Christopher of CalMatters, “a judge stripped Democratic candidate Jessica Morse of her chosen designation, ‘National Security Strategist,’ after Regina Bateson, another Democrat in the race, sued.” A candidate can list two alternative designations in case the first is rejected, and both of Morse’s alternatives were also rejected, resulting in Morse having no ballot designation. This was in the Primary race. 

Image: Jessica Morse was listed on the 2018 Primary Ballot with no ballot designation.

Regina Bateson, who was Morse’s opponent in the Primary Election and also a Democrat, filed a Petition for Writ of Mandate to Alex Padilla, who was serving as the California Secretary of State. The petition asked Padilla to reject Jessica Morse’s ballot designation “National Security Strategist” as well as her first and second alternative ballot designations, “National Security Advisor” and “National Security Specialist,” arguing that not any of the three designations was a true current profession held by Morse. 

In the petition, Bateson claimed, “Morse does not currently work in national security, and has not since at least 2015. In May 2015, she left government employment to write a book about the murder of an American actress. From August 2016 through November 2016 she worked as a campaign organizer and volunteer coordinator for the Colorado Democratic Party.” She added, “These allegations are based on Morse’s own admissions in official filings and public records.” 

Morse’s own LinkedIn profile states that her only employment from May 2015 to August 2016 was self-employed as an author to write a “yet-to-be-published book about [an] early American feminist lost to history because of her sexual identity.” After that, there’s about a year-long gap in her work history on LinkedIn, followed by her first campaign for Congress starting in July 2017. 

Excerpt from Jessica Morse's LinkedIn profile: between May 2015 and November 2018, she lists over a year as author, about a year with no employment, and over a year as a congressional candidate.

The court heard the arguments and on March 28, 2018, the court ruled that all three of Morse’s proposed ballot designations were indeed “misleading under Elec. Code 13107.” 

Minute Order from the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento

Apparently, Morse did not learn her lesson, because according to Bryan Anderson and Emily Cadei of SacBee, she attempted to list “National Security Consultant” on the following General Election ballot, which was also rejected as false or misleading. Again, her alternatives were also rejected, making that six failed attempts to list a truthful profession. In that General Election race, the only profession she could truthfully list was “Candidate for Congress.” 

Honoring Military Heroes

Sheckels shared, “Growing up in D.C. and dad being a proud marine, we got taken to Arlington National Cemetery every year on Memorial Day. You’d watch the changing of the guard where the tomb of the unknown soldier is. You’d cry because you know they’re dead and they’re not coming back.” Troubled by her remarks, he suggests Morse take a “walk through Arlington Cemetery.” 

Sheckels warns, “Too many people are zoned out, they don’t get engaged, they don’t understand the good, the bad, the ugly, and the uneven… And ultimately the whole thing that people need to start grasping is it will affect you. It may not affect you today; it will eventually affect you. And if it doesn’t affect you, it’s going to affect every generation of your entire family throughout probably the next 30 to 50 years.”

Sheckels believes that most veterans would be offended by Morse’s misleading claims that she “served” in the military. “Don’t lie about being in the military. Me being a proud son of my dad, you just took away from what my dad did. It’s a stab to my heart for her to do that.” 

Someone reached out to Morse’s campaign via social media since the incident, but she has not responded.

Susan Walsh is an advocate for veterans and veteran’s rights in California, and the daughter of a WWII fighter pilot.