Max Yashirin

After serving one year Yashirin returned to Nebraska and to the university, where he plans to finish his degree in international business in spring 2008.

As of fall 2008 Max’s brother Nick was deployed in Iraq.

In February 2008, early in Yashirin's campaign, it was revealed that the Nebraska Republican Party had snapped up the www.maxyashirin.com domain name and posted pictures of him drinking and smoking taken from the social networking website Facebook. "We’re using it to highlight the differences between our two-term congressman and a 25-year-old who hasn’t finished college. Our goal is not to be malicious or mean," said Matt Miltenberger, executive director of the state Republican Party. Yashirin responded, "I can’t believe that they would stoop that low. Obviously, they must be taking me seriously. This is what people do when they really feel threatened."

Yashirin was one of two Democratic anti-Iraq War Veteran candidates running for Congress in Nebraska in 2008, the other being Richard Carter, who is also running against a Republican incumbent who supports the Iraq War. Yashirin was defeated in the general election by Jeff Fortenberry, who won more than twice the number of votes as Yashirin statewide.

While he was a student at UNL in 2004 his unit was activated and he was sent to Iraq. Yashirin earned the rank of sergeant and served a seven-month tour of duty at Al Asad Airbase, the largest U.S. military airbase in the largely Sunni western Iraq Province of Al Anbar Province. He was a heavy equipment mechanic.

Max Yashirin (born September 30, 1982) is an Iraq War Veteran who ran for U.S. Congress in Nebraska's 1st congressional district. He was one of two Iraq War veterans running for office in Nebraska in 2008, and ran unopposed in the primaries. Yashirin was defeated in the general election by Republican incumbent Jeff Fortenberry.