Promising to stay in the race until the end, North Country businessman Jeffrey French has entered the contest for the 21st Congressional District seat.

Candidate French, who resides in Natural Bridge, is planning to run on both the Constitution Party and Conservative Party lines. He is announcing his candidacy at 10 a.m. Friday in Watertown on the Public Square.

"I will be the voice of the people in this district and will pledge to uphold and preserve the Constitution rights of every American," said French.

Two Washington County hopefuls, Sara Idleman of Greenwich and Tanya Boone of Granville, recently announced they are pulling out of contention for the District 21 Democratic nomination. The other remaining contenders are Tedra Cobb of Canton, Patrick Nelson of Stillwater, Donald Boyajian of Cambridge, Emily Martz of Saranac Lake, Katie Wilson of Keene, David Mastrianni of Saratoga Springs, and Dylan Ratigan.

French worked for DynCorp as a deputy program manager at Fort Drum and is currently employed by Schwan's Home Food Services.

French joined the Army ROTC program in August 1978 and the Army Reserves in October 1979 until 1983. French served on active duty in the United States Air Force from 1983 until 1989.

After active service, he served in the Army Reserves from 1989 until 2005. During his military tenure, served in Bosnia in 1999 in support of Operation Joint Forge and the Kosovo Campaign on G4 Staff as current operations officer and facility officer for both the 1st Cavalry and 10th Mountain Divisions.

French also was activated from January 2003 until July 2005 as battalion operations officer overseeing units being trained for detainee operations at Guantanamo Bay and security forces training for Iraq/Afghanistan. He retired as a major in October 2005.

He has been married for 21 years and is the father of two step-children and five grandchildren.

"It has been the best 21 years of his life," French said.

He is a member of the American Legion Post 724, Sons of American Revolution, and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. He also volunteers in the annual MS walk.

French graduated from Watertown High School in 1976 and Jefferson Community College in 1978.

His campaign website is www.French4Congress.com.