There’s only one candidate I trust — as a Navy veteran of 24 years, as a father of two daughters — to navigate our country through the challenges ahead: It is time to end decades of regime change war and mend the partisan divide this administration has widened.

There’s also only one candidate not being given a voice in CNN’s upcoming presidential town hall being held just days before my neighbors and I head to the polls: Tulsi.

I believe we need to do something about this attempt to unduly influence the choices presented to voters like me here in New Hampshire: That’s why I’m asking you to sign my petition asking CNN to Let Tulsi Speak.

We all deserve a candidate who actually understands -- who knows firsthand from time on the ground -- the enormous cost of war, and who intends to do something about it.

I don’t think of myself as a Democrat, or a Republican… I’m an American first and foremost, and I want a president who shares my priority in upholding the values and freedoms we all hold dear. Who has a record of putting service before self, not just empty words.

When I first heard Tulsi speak I thought to myself: Here is someone who’s truly authentic. Someone who provides reasoned response that comes from the heart. She hasn’t pandered. She’s been dead honest about why we went to war, who profited from it, and how much we’re still spending. She shows up, she listens, and she isn’t afraid to say the things we’re all thinking to the people in power, regardless of what party they’re in.

Tulsi’s unmatched experience as a soldier, a veteran of Iraq and Kuwait, and as a member of Congress sitting on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees is what we need in a Commander in Chief. And it’s a voice that deserves to be heard on CNN alongside the other presidential candidates just days before we go to vote here in New Hampshire.

When I joined the Navy, it was to uphold our American values - our democratic freedoms - and that is the spirit in which we need to call on CNN to extend a town hall to a candidate who speaks for people like me.

Thank you for standing with me,

Kirk Hoppe USN (Ret.), New Hampshire