Minnesotan runs for President
Nick Hanson
Issue date: 9/16/04 Section: News
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Running as a candidate for the Christian Freedom Party (his own creation), Harens said winning the presidency is both illogical and impossible.
"I'm not running because I want to be President," he said. "I don't want to worry about winning."
Instead Harens, a former DFL legislator in the '80s, is poised to make a political statement.
"This is a statement about progressive Christians standing up, but it's not a protest party," he said.
His goal: to gather one to two percent of the Minnesotan presidential vote and get his party in the spotlight.
Although he was once a DFL member and later ran for mayor of St. Paul as an independent candidate in 1997, he believes that none of the parties fulfill his political aspirations.
"I started looking at all of the political parties around the country," he said.
After extensive party research, he concluded it would be best to create his own.
In the traditional two party system, progressive Christians have a difficult choice voting, and more specifically voting on the issue of pro-choice, Harens said. "You can't really vote for either party."
While Republicans advocate pro-life, many other issues they stand for do not coincide with progressive Christian ideals. Some include, gay rights, environmental issues, social justice and the war in Iraq.
"They (Republicans) do nothing but use pro-life as a marketing tool," he said.
On the other hand, if Harens were to affiliate with the DFL, because of the pro-choice issue, he would be sinning.
"I have certain faith based issues where I could never go all the way to the DFL," he said.
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