RJ Harris (politician)

Richard Jason "RJ" Satawk Harris (born November 16, 1972) is an United States Army National Guard warant officer, politician, law student and former Air Traffic Controller. He was a candidate for the Libertarian Party's 2012 nomination for President of the United States. In 2010, he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Tom Cole for the Republican Party nomination in The Primary election for Oklahoma's 4th congressional district. He ran as an independent candidate for the same congressional seat in 2012.

Background

Harris was born November 16, 1972 at March Air Force Base near Riverside, California, where his father, Richard Michael Settainte (White Bear) Harris was stationed. His father, a member of the Kiowa Nation, was in the military and currently serves as a physician at The INDIAN Health Services clinic in Carnegie, Oklahoma. Because of his father's lineage, Harris has a Certificate of Indian Blood. His parents split while he was still young, and he settled with his mother, Deborah Jill in Arizona, where she remarried and renamed him Jason Sam Barnes after his stepfather.

In the early 1990s, Barnes married Jennifer Friend, with whom he has five children. After learning AbOUT his name change early in life, Barnes decided to adopt his birth name and permanently moved to Oklahoma, where he currently resides. His wife and children changed their names as well.

Harris has worked as a sergeant and warrant officer in the Army National Guard since 1989, and had tours in South Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He worked as an Air Traffic Controller from 1997 to 2006, and opened two gaming stores in Gilbert, Arizona, which closed in 2001, a fact Harris attributes to the post-9/11 recession. As a result, he was forced to file for bankruptcy, which was cleared by 2004.

Harris has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Oklahoma, and has studied law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Political career

2010 U.S. congressional campaign

The Republican Liberty Caucus endorsed Harris in his 2010 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. In that race, he received 9,592 votes for 22.7% of the vote in the Republican primary against incumbent U.S. Representative Tom Cole, who won the nomination.

2012 presidential campaign

In August 2011, Harris announced his candidacy for the nomination of the Libertarian Party (LP) for President of the United States in the 2012 election.

He ended his presidential campaign in April 2012, citing a lack of sufficient fundraising as well as his decision to run for Congress again in 2012.

2012 U.S. congressional campaign

On April 11, 2012, the same day he withdrew his candidacy for the LP presidential nomination, Harris announced that he would make a second bid for Oklahoma’s 4th District Congressional Seat in the 2012 Congressional election, again challenging incumbent Tom Cole. Harris ran as an independent in this race. He received approximately 4.5% of the vote and placed third in the vote total behind Cole, who won re-election, and the Democratic nominee Donna Bebo.

External links

• Harris U.S. Congress 2012, official campaign site

ja:R・J・ハリス