For 25 years, Patrick Lee’s business has let him travel across the country and portray three famous Americans to educate audiences about the lives of Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Boone, and William Clark. But this year, Lee hung up his costumes and put his career to the side in order to run as an independent, write-in candidate for the Missouri seat in the Senate.
The Ashland, Missouri resident is running on the campaign platform “no more kicking the can”. Lee said he believes Congress has been avoiding important national issues he wants to address if he’s elected. In a symbolic effort, Lee has a can handcuffed to his wrist throughout the campaign to try and draw attention to the issue, even if he makes a spectacle of himself he said.
“Even given all that, I am dead serious about what I’m doing,” Lee said. “I’ve devoted much of 2016 to this. I’ve spent my own money. I’ve put my own business on the back burner to do this, but I thought it was worth doing.”
Lee moved to southwest Missouri when he was 8 years old, and has lived in Central Missouri since he attended the University of Missouri, where he studied politics and government.
Lee has never held an elected office, and said he dropped out of politics after a decade because he was disappointed in the way our government addresses certain national issues.
“I’ve been interested in politics for a long time, I just didn’t know how to participate in what I thought was just kind of a negative, zero sum game of political campaigning,” said Lee. “I have been more and more disturbed the last few years at what Congress has been doing, or more importantly what they haven’t been doing, kicking the can down the road on important issues.”
Lee said he knows his chances of winning are slim, but that’s not why he is running. Lee said he wants to influence the debate and inspire people to ask more questions during elections. He said he believes we rely too much on the federal government and not enough on ourselves.
“You’ve got to start somewhere. If I was only going to do this knowing that I would win, then I wouldn’t have started,” Lee said. “I wanted to influence the debate.”
Lee’s campaign website, writeinpatricklee.com, explains his position on many major national issues. Lee said he wants to be known for what he is for, and not for what or who he is against. He said with all his opponents spending millions on campaign ads attacking one another, he wanted to do it in a different manner and show it was possible to talk about national issues without attacking other candidates.