Irish American Congressman Thaddeus McCotter announced he is running  for the Republican nomination at a Michigan rock concert on July 4th.

McCotter  a devout Catholic, will start as a major outsider but he is known for his debating skills that may work well for him in the scheduled debates.

He has also purchased pavilion space in the most prominent location for the Republican straw poll to be held in Iowa shortly, in hopes of jump starting his candidacy.

He authored a resolution calling on President Obama to apologize to Boston Irish cop  Sergeant James Crowley James Crowley arrested African American professor Henry Gates outside his home in Cambridge in an incident that was first portrayed as racial by the president

McCotter, whose name descends from  a County Cork clan, was born in Detroit to public school teacher parents and was a high school football start.He was elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1998 and to Congress in 2003.

A free spirit, he plays lead guitar for a group called the Second Amendments and has a portrait of John Lennon prominent in his office.

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Afetr his announcement on July 4th he played with a local rock band at the concert.
McCotter clearly perceives sees an opening in a weak field.

“He has a strong voting record that [appeals to] the Republican constituency, he thinks for himself, and he’s willing to go outside the box on some things,” says Jack Holmes, a political scientist at Hope College in Holland, Mich.

 McCotter is refreshingly real, says Professor Holmes, “He’s a thoughtful individual, a thinking conservative who’s going to look at the issues in his own way and be his own person,” he told the Christian Science monitor.

Conservative commentator and publisher Andrew Breitbart, has jumped on board  calling the candidate “blunt, sarcastic, pop-culture-savvy, constitutionally sound, and an authentic voice.”