Next door at AMERICAblog Gay Joe Sudbay catches the first official GOP presidential announcement: Fred Karger. Here's Joe's post on the first openly gay candidate to run for President:
Just got the word that Fred Karger has filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission here in DC. Yep, he is running for President as a Republican. And, Fred is the first GOPer to make it official.Check out AMERICAblog Gay for the rest of Joe's take on Karger's announcement.
For background, here's the release on today's filing:Longtime GOP operative, Fred Karger will turn in his paperwork Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 11:00 am at the FEC Offices, 999 E Street, NW, Washington, DC. Karger was the first to announce he was seriously considering running for President on April 10, 2010 at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans and the first to establish a Presidential Exploratory Committee on July 18, 2010. He was the first to run commercials in New Hampshire right after Labor Day last year, the first to run an Iowa commercial right after the November midterm elections and the first to hire a State Director in Iowa on December 1, 2010. So it only stands to reason that Karger would be the first to file for the Republican nomination for President. Oh, yeah, Fred would also be the first openly gay candidate to run for President in history.