Gates alumnus Matt Varilek has announced he is running for election to Congress.
Gates alumnus Matt Varilek has just announced that he is running for election to the US House of Representatives.
Matt is running on a Democrat ticket against Republican Kristi Noem in the 2012 race for South Dakota’s US seat.
He released an online video this week and says he has been thinking about standing since May. He says his decision was swayed by watching events in Washington over the last few months. “Congress is now about as popular as toothache so you do have to wonder about someone who wants to voluntarily join that institution,” he says in a broadcast on Keloland News.
He hopes to bridge the differences between the Democrats and Republicans “instead of fanning the flames of partisanship” and says he hopes this will mean that Congress gets more done and becomes more popular.
Matt, who is married with two children, has been working in Washington for the last seven years for senator Tim Johnson as his economic development director.
He did an MPhil in Environment and Development at Cambridge and was one of the first year’s intake of Gates Cambridge scholars.
For more information on his campaign, click here.
