Run Andrew Run

Freshman Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice has announced his intention to oust incumbent US Senator Jim Inhofe in the 2008 general election.

Andrew moved to Oklahoma City in 2003, where he founded the Progressive Alliance Foundation. The foundation works throughout the state of Oklahoma advancing progressive, fair-minded and constitutional solutions to our public policy problems. Andrew also launched the RED RIVER DEMOCRACY PROJECT (RRDP) in 2003, which used Chautauqua style community festivals to inform Oklahoma citizens about the failures of our political system to live up to our nation’s democratic ideals. The RRDP is now a 527 political organization. He was elected State Senator in 2006.

In 1999, Rice moved to New York City and worked as a freelance documentary producer and editor. He worked on programs for the BBC and PBS, including segments for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

On September 11th, Andrew’s older brother, David Rice, was killed in the World Trade Center, where he worked for the investment firm Sandler O'Neill. David was a graduate of Bishop McGuiness High school and former Fullbright Scholar in South Africa. He was 31-years-old when he was killed.

Due to this tragedy, Andrew decided to re-dedicate his career to social justice work and moved to Austin, Texas in February 2002 to work for the advocacy organization the Texas Freedom Network, which counters the influence of religious extremism in politics. In Austin, Rice launched a state-wide public education initiative entitled the Fundamentalism Education Project, which organized progressive Texas religious leaders to openly challenge the myth that fundamentalism represents the essential values of our faith traditions.

After college, Rice spent a year to working and traveling in Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. In Sri Lanka he worked with the largest Buddhist Grassroots NGO in Asia, helping with rural development in Village life and in the conflict zone. In Thailand, Rice worked for the country's largest private AIDS Hospice. In India, Rice studied local addiction problems and treatment.

In 1997, Andrew enrolled in Harvard University Divinity School and pursued a Masters in Theological Studies. His area of focus was the role of religion in social justice movements, and the origination of anti-Semitism in the early Christian Church. He graduated from Harvard in 1999.

Andrew is just what Oklahoma needs. He is a man with John Kennedy's vision, Woody Guthrie's realism and a Barry Switzer's attitude.

Support and elect Andrew Rice for US Senator from Oklahoma.

"There is no passion to be found in playing small-- in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." -- Nelson Mandela