About Me

My name is Sean Closson and I’m running to represent New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. Congress. I’m a 25 year old artist and I’ve spent the last year and a half working at hotel. I’m on the local MoveOn council, I canvassed this district while with the Census, volunteered on a State Land Commission campaign, and attended every DFA training I could at Netroots Nation.

I don’t have a traditional resume and I don’t know the right people, but I genuinely care about good policy. It means something to me. It isn’t some grand pissing match; it’s real people’s lives at stake. I was unemployed in 2010 and the only thing that kept me from living in a dumpster behind Trader Joe’s was my unemployment benefits.

Our government is supposed to be by, of, and for the people, but over half of the Congress and Senate are millionaires. Of course they’re going to keep voting for legislation that favors the 1 percent- most of them are. They’re not going to fix the financial sector when it’s one of their biggest sources of campaign money. They exist in a bubble and as much as they try to convince us that they’re folksy, they don’t know what it’s like out here.

Sure, they’ll bust out an anecdote about a struggling single mother or someone’s sick grandparent, but they have health insurance. They have a job. They can afford to take vacations. They don’t have to figure out how to eat on $10 a week. They don’t apply to hundreds of jobs without getting any response whatsoever. They’re not getting evicted from any of their homes. They’re so far removed from what so many people are experiencing, and yet they’re the ones making the decisions.

These are often the same people who insist that government can’t create jobs, we spend too much, and we can’t afford it anymore. We’re supposed to buy that austerity is the only answer. Bullcrap. The problem is that we’re spending so much on things that don’t help anyone, with the exception of banks, defense contractors, and oil companies, instead of making sensible investments that make society better for everybody. At the same time we’re not actually paying for any of it thanks to the popularity of voodoo economics. You can’t throw out hundreds of billions in revenue and expect to be able to pay for the same things you used to.

During the Great Depression the WPA employed thousands of Americans, and paid them a dignified wage. It helped end the depression and make America the economic powerhouse it was for the rest of the 20th century. I think it’s time for a Green New Deal. We can create jobs, invest in sustainable energy and transportation, overhaul our 70 year old infrastructure, and recover from the recession all at the same time. Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t do something. If ever there was a need for optimism, it’s now. We don’t have to accept cynicism and corruption as given. We can do this, all we need is the political will to move forward. We did it before, we can do it again.

I don’t have a family to worry about. I don’t have a career to ruin. I have nothing to lose and I intend to go at this with everything I have.  This is too important to leave up to them any more. If you want something done right, do it yourself.

I’m Sean Closson, and I’m running for Congress.