After earning his bachelor's degree, he enlisted in the
United States Army Reserve and served nine years with the
Chemical Corps, rising to the rank of
sergeant before his honorable discharge in 2018. In 2016, Sortwell pushed an online petition asking Green Bay mayor
Jim Schmitt to resign over criminal campaign finance violations. By that time, however, Sortwell had moved back to the town of Gibson. He was elected to the board of supervisors of Gibson in 2017.
Wisconsin State Assembly In 2018, after incumbent
Andre Jacque announced he would not run for reelection, Sortwell declared his candidacy for Assembly in the
2nd Assembly district. During the campaign, he was endorsed by state senator
Alan Lasee and Manitowoc County Executive
Bob Ziegelbauer. He defeated Dean Raasch in an August primary for the Republican nomination and won the November election over Democrat Mark Grams, garnering 55 percent of the vote. After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and
Donald Trump refused to concede, Sortwell raised
concerns of fraud in the election and urged Congress to delay certification of the election results. In 2020, Sortwell and another Republican legislator,
Paul Tittl, erected a Christmas tree in the capitol rotunda, which had been previously prohibited by governor Tony Evers due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic. The two legislators were joined by representatives
Dave Murphy and
Chuck Wichgers in decorating the tree. This stood in contrast with a fellow Republican legislator,
Amy Loudenbeck, who was granted permission to place a Christmas tree on the capitol rotunda's first floor. In 2021 Sortwell garnered controversy due to comparisons he made between Central Wisconsin Children's Museum, based out of
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and
Nazi Germany due to a requirement from the museum for unvaccinated people to wear masks, with Sortwell saying "The Gestapo wants to see your papers, please". Due to his comments, the museum received harassment from all across the country. Stevens Point residents asked Sortwell to apologize for his statement, but he stood by his statement about the museum. In 2025 Sortwell was assigned as vice chair to the Government Oversight Accountability and Transparency (GOAT) Committee, which was modeled off of the
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Using the committee, he sent out requests to numerous cities asking for information regarding
Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Sortwell was criticized by Democratic members of the committee for making these information requests without consulting other members of the committee and due to the lack of a task for the committee to undertake. ==Personal life==