I was now a Field Operations Supervisor for the U.S. Census.

It wasn't my last experience with joblessness, as Census work is by it's nature intermittent, but it was the life line that stopped me from becoming a statistic. They didn't just give me a job, they gave me a good job. There's no way on earth any private business would have started me off in a supervisory position like that, but they did, and I was awesome at it. It's the best job I've had to date, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

This is why I'm here. I'm not someone who at some vague point in the distant past experienced some economic hardship. I'm someone who was on unemployment in 2010. I stared down the barrel of my final weeks, having no idea if I would find a job before then, or if I couldn't, if I'd be able to extend. If I couldn't get an extension, what would I do? I was fortunate enough to finally get a job working at a hotel, but it was down to the wire. I can tell you from personal experience, being on unemployment sucks. It isn't a vacation. It isn't free money to sit around and watch cartoons. It's soul killing. You send out all kinds of job applications you never hear back from. Your calls aren't returned. You lose self esteem, you lose touch with the outside world. It's a depressing hole that every day you hope to crawl out of, and millions of Americans experience it every day.

I'm here to represent the people who don't have lobbyists. People who are struggling just to make rent and feed their families. People who get foreclosed on, even when they did everything right. People who's job gets sent overseas, or can't afford gas to heat their homes, or who have to hide in the shadows of society because they don't have the right paperwork. The people who, up to this point, have borne all the consequences of the recession, while those who are the best off reap record profits and enjoy unparalleled freedom to buy our elections.

It isn't acceptable to ask the poorest of our society to bear the brunt of something they had so little to do with. It's NOT ok to cut subsidies for people who can't afford heat so that Rush Limbaugh gets a tax cut. It's NOT ok to tell someone they have to suck it up when Intel sends their job to India. It's NOT ok that wages have been stagnant for decades, but we're told we just HAVE to give out bonuses to executives at banks that took TARP money. This crap is unacceptable! There isn't wiggle room here. This is WRONG, and we need representatives in Washington who aren't afraid to not only stand up for whats right, but to do it loudly and unequivocally!

This is what motivates me. This is why I'm running. The right wing media likes to accuse anyone that dares to challenge the sanctity of the wealthy of engaging in class warfare. It's about time someone did. This is a fight that I have every intention of having. I'm here to fight the entrenched interests. To challenge conventional wisdom. To rattle the cage. To shine a light.

But most of all, to bring the ruckus.

My name is Sean Closson, and I'm running for congress.

Edit: Forgot to include a link to my website. It's http://www.closson2012.com