U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a wonky and witty guitar-playing congressman from Michigan, added his name to the Republican presidential sweepstakes on Saturday evening
with a low-key announcement during a Fourth of July freedom festival in Whitmore Lake, outside of Detroit.
“Through your hard work and through your principled determination to bequeath to your children a better America, we will restructure the government,” the little-known conservative congressman from Livonia told a crowd of about 400 rock fans. “What we need in Washington is someone who knows the future is not big government — it is self government,” said McCotter in becoming the third member of the U.S. House to join the race.
Widely known on Capitol Hill for quoting song lyrics, McCotter, who was joined on stage by his wife and two of his three children, picked up his star-spangled Telecaster moments after delivering his 10-minute speech and began playing with a band.
The quirky McCotter, who once tried to eliminate his own position as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, believing that it was too costly, isn’t your typical conservative. Among other things, he voted to end the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy and has supported organized labor. He also voted for the government bailouts of both General Motors and Chrysler.
McCotter, a graduate of the University of Detroit, is currently serving in his fifth term in Congress. He previously served in the Michigan State Senate and as a Wayne County commissioner.
With little name recognition and a near-empty bank account, the 45-year-old McCotter enters the race as a heavy underdog — a fact that he readily acknowledges.
“While it is a hard road ahead, we will have better days and we will start now,” he said.
McCotter, who recently completed a four-day tour of Iowa and plans to actively compete in that state’s influential Ames Straw Poll in August, will head to New Hampshire later this week for two days of campaigning.
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