Daniel Zene Crowe

Daniel Zene Crowe, a fifth-generation Oregonian, grew up in the Mt. Angel farmhouse built by his grandfather. Daniel graduated from West Point as the Konstantin Kolenda Scholar of Philosophy in 1991, as well as earning All-American honors and two national championships with Army Pistol. Commissioned into the Cavalry, Daniel served in two legendary Army units – the 11th Armored Cav (Blackhorse) and the 509th Airborne (Geronimo) – after Ranger School.

​Upon promotion to Captain, Daniel was directed to law school under the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program, concentrating on criminal justice reform and producing “Suggestions for U.S. Service Members in Japanese Criminal Proceedings.” He led the Intl Law Society and won an ABA writing award for an editorial denouncing the defacement of Hillary Clinton’s photo in his piece, “Conservative? No, Just a Moron.” Upon Graduation from law school, Captain Crowe was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he led the Army’s largest and busiest legal aid office and served as a defense attorney at numerous courts-martial. Captain Crowe then deployed to Cairo to establish a legal position in the Cairo Embassy’s Office of Military Cooperation, working closely with U.S. defense contractors, Egyptian government officials, and U.S. embassy personnel to regain accountability of the $1.3B per year of military aid the U.S. provides Egypt pursuant to the Camp David Peace Accords.

After those assignments, Major Crowe deployed to Korea where he served back-to-back unaccompanied tours, first in the 2nd Infantry Division and then as the Chief Prosecutor for the Korean Peninsula. In May 2004, Major Crowe left active service to better care for his disabled daughter, Anna, and son, Thomas, as a single dad. Stabilized in Germany, Major Crowe began work at U.S. European Command (EUCOM) in Stuttgart, Germany, specializing in humanitarian assistance in Africa. Following that tour, Major Crowe joined the inaugural class of the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, obtaining an MBA under the sponsorship of DHL. Daniel wrote his MBA thesis for Children for Tomorrow, a nonprofit which provides psychiatric care for children caught in war.

After earning his MBA, Major Crowe returned to European Command and served as a legal subject-matter expert on Counter-Narcoterrorism, Human Intelligence (HUMINT), and the EUCOM Joint Interagency Control Group, synchronizing U.S. Government activities across various agencies and allies, as well as modeling the Iranian threat to the Caucuses. Lieutenant Colonel Crowe then worked as a criminal defense attorney, Europewide, specializing in defending Soldiers suffering from post-combat stress. As a military defense counsel, Daniel has tried over 100 courts-martial—including defending five premeditated murder cases, all of which vindicated his Soldier clients.

When his father passed away, Daniel returned to Oregon to stabilize a family business which had been operating in Mount Angel since 1940. Continuing to advocate for Veterans, Daniel founded several nonprofits, built up the Veterans’ Justice Project in the Portland Public Defenders, and fought for our Veterans and Veteran Families throughout Oregon—particularly those struggling with homelessness, mental illness, and addiction.

In 2016, Daniel was the Republican nominee for Oregon Attorney General. Although outspent 8:1, Daniel fought the incumbent Democrat AG to a tie in 35 of Oregon’s 36 counties by championing the supremely Oregonian Republican idea that no Oregonian is free if any Oregonian – foster kids, the mentally ill, black Oregonians, migrants, the homeless, the working poor, the disabled, the inconvenient unborn – is denied the full protection of the law. Daniel also led the “Yes on Measure 96” Campaign to a 66-point vistory, embedding into Oregon’s Constitution funding for Veteran Services, a first in our Nation.

In his off-duty hours, Daniel created the Oregon Veterans Legal Clinic at Willamette Law School, served as the chair of the Oregon State Bar’s Military & Veterans Law Section, and served on the Mt. Angel School Board—helping tiny Mt. Angel win an unprecedented three Oregon Cups and Kennedy’s first state football championship, closing a circle which began when Daniel served as the football team captain and all-league middle linebacker.

Daniel is a life member of Mensa, the U.S. Chess Federation, and the NRA. He is married to Anita (“Aer”) Dittrich-Crowe, who now shares with him the triumphs and tribulations of Anna Bettina and Private Thomas Zene Crowe, U.S. Army. The Crowe Family still own the family farmhouse in which Daniel grew up, and Daniel and Aer split time between Mount Angel and Jensen Beach, Florida, where Daniel has joined the Free at Last Coalition, which aims to make the conservative case for the dis-incarceration of a significant percentage of the more than 2 million Americans who are currently behind bars, more than China and Russia combined.