Hello DailyKos folks!
My name is Steve Lough and I’m running for Congress in South Carolina’s 5th District! Yes, I am a clown...a real, professional clown...an ex-Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus clown. Born and raised in Camden, SC, graduated from Dartmouth College, then graduated and got a contract offer from Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Worked for Ringling for many years, Kinoshita Circus in Japan for 3 years, and the last 10 years I worked for McDonalds performing anti-bullying school shows all over eastern NC from Chapel Hill to Ocracoke.
I volunteered for the Obama campaign in ‘08 and ‘12...Hillary for most of ‘16...but I really found my heart in listening to Bernie talk about single payer healthcare. My wife is Japanese (she also was a clown for Ringling Bros. Circus...she wore a kimono costume and folded a giant paper crane at intermission) and her father could not believe that the USA is so far behind in healthcare. He feels sorry for us as a nation. So that’s one reason why I’m running.
I’m also running because of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We were doing two anti-bullying shows on Camp Lejeune, Tarawa Terrace Elementary (I think that was the name of the school) and we didn’t hear any news until the shows were over and we were out on the highway going home. I regularly use 6 year old volunteers in this show, and for the next 6 months, I had flashbacks and nightmares imagining what happened to those kids. I found out the ringmaster, Jonathan Lee Iverson, went to Hartford music school with Jimmy Greene, the father of Ana, one of the victims. An old clown friend went to high school with the principal of Sandy Hook. An older black woman in the senior center gym I went to in Benson, NC told me her daughter went to college with the teacher Victoria Soto. My cousin’s daughter was on the floor and knew the counselor who was one of the first victims at Virginia Tech.
When I decided to move back home to Camden, SC, I Googled the 5th District...Ralph Norman, the Republican incumbent, is a real estate millionaire who took over his daddy’s business…the Democrat is Archie Parnell, a millionaire tax attorney who worked for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong for 20 years and Exxon for 10 years…people say his ads are great! He gets a tattoo, he makes snow angels, he parodies House of Cards! Genius! He lost twice. I say the ads are cruel and sad and show he is completely out of touch. People need healthcare. People need a living wage. Gun violence is destroying our society. And this guy is making snow angels...Pathetic.
I went to the Kershaw County Democratic Convention tonight and I spoke for 5 minutes. There were other candidates for other offices there as well...I talked about Single Payer and the founding documents, justice for ALL...several people came up to me after and said they liked what I said and that I was genuine, they could feel me...that’s all I need to hear...I used to work with a guy named Michu...33 inches tall...he’d go out into ring 2 (the center ring) all by himself and dance to Hungarian Rhapsody and bring the house down! Madison Square Garden! All by himself! I hope to do what Michu did, in honor of Michu...it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog! And, in case you didn’t know, it’s the year of the dog, and I’m ready to fight for Single Payer! If old Ralph and Archie aren’t afraid of clowns now, they will be shortly!
Spread the word!
