Dr. Andy Baldwin interviewed in The Hill: "Reality TV star weighs run for office (someday)"

September 22, 2008 (Washington, D.C.) U.S. NAVY Doctor, Humanitarian, Triathlete and TV Personality Dr. Andy Baldwin interviewed in The Hill:
Reality TV star weighs run for office (someday).
By Betsy Rothstein
TheHill.com
Posted: 09/22/08 05:16 PM [ET]

Andy Baldwin, who starred on season 10 of ABC’s “The Bachelor,” isn’t announcing a candidacy for office just yet, but he acknowledges that every aspect of his life is pointing him in that direction.

When he’s not spending time with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez (whom he refers to as J.Lo), as he did last weekend at a Malibu triathlon, he’s honing his public speaking skills by crisscrossing the country to talk to high school students about the importance of service. He’s also making friends: Lopez, who asked for tips on surviving a triathlon, introduced him to her husband, singer Marc Anthony.

“I think ‘The Bachelor’ is one small thing in the grand scheme of my life,” Baldwin, 31, said in an extensive phone interview late last week. “I wish the media would focus on what drives me. That’s the thing that can be frustrating. You have that public persona and [it’s tough] trying to have that match who you are.”

But even the good Navy doctor recognizes that his reality TV fame has caught the public’s eye. He was in Washington this past weekend to appear at USO Casino Night with 2008 Miss America Kirsten Haglund, whom he calls “impressive.” He also turned up on the National Mall near the Washington Monument on Saturday, crisply dressed in his Navy whites, to recite a poem from a fallen soldier at a remembrance ceremony. The keynote speaker was 1992 presidential hopeful Ross Perot, who arrived wearing a navy suit, American flag-inspired tie and signature straw hat.

While there, Baldwin behaved much like a politician, in that he shook hands, hobnobbed with high-powered military and political types and cooed with babies.

“I don’t consider myself to be one,” Baldwin says of his newfound stardom. “I’m a normal person doing my job.”

That job and everyman attitude is a campaign consultant’s dream. Born and raised in Lancaster, Pa., Baldwin grew up in a middle-class family and worked for everything he had. In high school he worked three jobs — paperboy, lifeguard and proprietor of a lawn mowing business — to help pay for college. He attended Duke University on a Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship and then earned a medical degree at the University of California San Francisco Medical School.

Earlier this year, he was deployed to the South Pacific, where he dived on a recovery mission to find the bodies of POWs and MIAs. Baldwin is a general practitioner who specializes in undersea medicine. He came to Washington in April of this year to be a Navy medicine advocate at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He lives in a studio apartment in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, just across the street from his office.

At some point soon he may testify before Congress on the subject of pancreatic cancer — his uncle, Tom, died of it, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is considering him as a face to place before a congressional committee.

He’s also busily building his own charity organization, “Got Your Back Network,” a nonprofit that donates funds to families of soldiers who have died in duty.

Baldwin opens up easily on the subjects of love, work, his father’s recent heart surgery and life.

One subject he wouldn’t discuss: politics.

“As a naval officer I am nonpartisan,” he said. “I can’t really state my political beliefs. However, I am a devout believer in our country and service. Personally, I’m pretty mixed.

“What I really do believe in is the importance of unifying our country, [bringing] the community together for one cause.”

When asked about his prospects of running for office someday, Baldwin boasts that his father, Roy Baldwin, was a two-term state representative in Pennsylvania. Of his own ambition, he says: “Right now I’m keeping my options open. I’m serving my time.”

Being “the bachelor” only helps his popularity (so name recognition wouldn’t likely be an issue). “ ‘Ahh, it’s the bachelor,’ ” he says strangers have called out on the street. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a negative comment. It puts a smile on people’s faces. People say, ‘Don’t you get sick of it?’ I say, ‘No way.’ ”

He concedes he is something of a politician-in-training.

“I think what a lot of politics is, is handling your public persona and handling the media,” he says.

His public speaking skills have never been better, and he avers a “growing ease” in his ability to get up in front of groups. “I owe a lot of that to being on television,” he says.

Like most reality TV stars, he has to contend with a certain lack of reality. For instance, the media recently reported that he will officiate at the wedding of the latest couple to emerge from “The Bachelor,” that of DeAnna Pappas and Jesse Csincsak.

While he knows the couple well, he says, they have not asked him to marry them.

Baldwin has no regrets about being on the show and says he will always “cherish” the experience. He says the show’s producers pursued him and persistently asked him to be the next bachelor. He didn’t immediately leap at the chance, but instead asked, “Why should I do this?”

He admits he didn’t know how emotional the experience would be or how off-putting it would be to have producers edit the program for the highest dramatic purposes. He says all intellectual conversations about foreign travel and art were cut.

“I was kind of a virgin going through it,” he says.

As for Baldwin’s love life, at the show’s close he had chosen Tessa Horst over Bevin Powers and dated her until past February, when she called it quits. While nursing a broken heart, he met Donald Trump’s ex-wife Marla Maples at a charity event in Los Angeles. He says she is “more of a friend than anything.”

Roy Baldwin, who showed up in Washington for his son’s poetry reading on the National Mall, called the show a “stupid idea” but said he supported it if his son could find love from it.

Unfortunately, he said, Horst is a very private person and didn’t like the media attention that came with it. “One wonders why someone would go on a show like that if they couldn’t handle the attention,” he said, clearly feeling for his son’s loss.

For the time being, the younger Baldwin says, he’s single and “not looking.” He believes love will find him when he least expects it.

Perhaps the same holds true of a budding career in politics.

About Dr. Andy Baldwin
Dr. Andy Baldwin appeared on ABC's hit show, "The Bachelor: Officer & A Gentleman," which aired in 2007. Since then, he has made several television appearances advocating U.S. Navy medicine and his various philanthropic endeavors.

Dr. Andy Baldwin developed a strong drive for success at an early age; he worked three jobs in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was Valedictorian of his high school class, an All-American swimmer, and was the ESPN national scholar/athlete of the year in 1995. After receiving a full Navy ROTC scholarship to Duke University, he chose to attend the prestigious school and pursued a pre-med curriculum. Andy swam as a varsity athlete throughout his undergraduate career and graduated with honors as a student-athlete in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Commissioned Officer in the United States Navy. Andy pursued his dream of becoming a physician, by enrolling and completing medical school at the University of California- San Francisco School of Medicine. After graduating in 2003, Andy completed a year internship in general surgery at Naval Medical Center San Diego, and went on to serve his operational duty in the Navy as an Undersea Medical Officer. He completed Navy Dive School and Undersea medical training and spent a three-year tour in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit ONE.

Upon moving to California, Andy took up cycling, and with his past running and swimming prowess was able to put them all together in a sport new to him - triathlon. He completed his first triathlon in 2001 with Team in Training, combining sport and charity for the first time, and finished atop the podium. He was hooked. Andy achieved his childhood dream in 2002 when he qualified for and completed the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kailua-Kona, HI in 9 hrs, 53 mins, racing in honor of his Uncle Tom. Andy has since been named to the All-Navy triathlon team five times, been a three-time U.S.A. Triathlon All-American, and competed internationally in numerous Half-Ironman and Ironman events. He is an eight-time Ironman finisher, and believes firmly in the motto "Anything is Possible!"

While stationed in Hawaii, Andy deployed to the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Cambodia, and the Republic of Palau on various diving, recovery and humanitarian missions. For the work Andy did in Laos in 2006 he was named Humanitarian of the Year by both Triathlete and Competitor magazines.

One of Andy's biggest supporters was his uncle Tom, who passed away from pancreatic cancer one month after his diagnosis in 2002. In remembrance of his uncle, Andy established a fund to help raise money for pancreatic research and continues to be supportive of the Pancreatic Cancer network. In 2004, Andy joined Project Active, a non-profit initiative dedicated to diffusing world tensions through promotion of sport in war torn and impoverished countries.

Andy was also the star of ABC's hit show "The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman," which aired in 2007. After his television appearances, Andy has become increasingly involved with domestic and global humanitarian projects. In order to help the families of America's fallen heroes, Andy started Got Your Back Network, and has overseen the project through all of its success. Andy recently transferred from Hawaii to Washington, D.C. where he is working as a Navy medicine advocate at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He remains active in his athletic and charitable pursuits.

For more information on Dr. Andy Baldwin, visit his official website or Got Your Back Network.

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