1. In February 2023, Steve Laffey announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the 2024 United States presidential election, becoming the first Republican challenger to Donald Trump.
55 Facts About Steve Laffey
1. 2.
Steve Laffey withdrew from the race on October 6,2023, and left the Republican Party to become an independent.
3.
Steve Laffey was born in 1962 in Warwick, Rhode Island, to John and Mary Steve Laffey.
4.
Steve Laffey grew up with four other siblings and at the age of four his family moved to Cranston.
5.
Steve Laffey's father worked as a toolmaker and union steward at Armbrust Chain Company while his mother worked as a night nurse.
6.
Steve Laffey is credited as being the first person in his family to go to college.
7.
Steve Laffey decided to apply to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, on the advice of his high school history teacher and was accepted with full scholarship.
8.
Steve Laffey attended Bowdoin from 1980 to 1984 where he majored in economics.
9.
Steve Laffey co-founded the Bowdoin Patriot, the school's conservative newspaper, and was elected president of the student government.
10.
Steve Laffey co-hosted the radio show The Joe Show on WBOR with his roommate Tom Marcelle.
11.
Steve Laffey was credited as being responsible for a full-fledged conservative movement at the university.
12.
Steve Laffey received a full ride to Harvard from the George and Mary Knox Scholarship at Bowdoin.
13.
Steve Laffey graduated with an MBA from Harvard in 1986.
14.
Steve Laffey had a stated goal of becoming the president of a financial firm by the time he was 40 years old.
15.
Steve Laffey worked in various positions within the company including director of research, head of equity trading, head of institutional sales, and chair of two venture capital funds.
16.
Steve Laffey worked a total of 9 years for the company.
17.
Steve Laffey served as the chairman of several investment committees and directly oversaw the firm's group of private equity investments and their analyst research branch.
18.
Steve Laffey left the company in 2001 after initiating and overseeing the sale of the firm to Regions Financial Corporation, a deal reported to be worth $789 million.
19.
Steve Laffey was replaced by Doug Edwards; and, in addition to Edwards, Keegan hired three additional executives to assume the duties of Laffey.
20.
Steve Laffey attended the retreat with some of his Harvard Business School classmates and it was at that time that he stated he felt the "call" to enter politics.
21.
Steve Laffey moved back to Cranston with his wife and children and ran for mayor in 2002.
22.
Steve Laffey challenged well-known Democrat Aram Garabedian in 2002 for mayor of Cranston.
23.
Steve Laffey recruited numerous local and well-known Cranston residents, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate executive committee member Norman Orodenker who stepped down from his position to assist Laffey with his campaign.
24.
Steve Laffey stood on street corners and knocked on doors handing out Laffy Taffy to help spread his name.
25.
Steve Laffey defeated Garabedian 14,688 to 13,359 and took office in January 2003.
26.
Steve Laffey's critics were mainly unions representing the city workers including the union representing the city crossing guards.
27.
Steve Laffey privatized the 39 crossing guard positions to save the city $800,000 per year.
28.
Steve Laffey faced opposition from the firefighter's union and the school union.
29.
In 2006, Steve Laffey distinguished Cranston by making it the only Rhode Island city to cut property taxes that year.
30.
Steve Laffey was the host of his own radio show in 2005 on WPRO in Rhode Island.
31.
The Steve Laffey Show came under attack when he was accused of using free airtime to obtain name recognition.
32.
Steve Laffey then filed a lawsuit against the Board citing violation of his 1st Amendment rights and for treating him differently than other politicians.
33.
On September 8,2005, Steve Laffey announced that he would be running for the United States Senate.
34.
Main points of Steve Laffey's campaign include eliminating what he calls pork barrel spending, simplifying the tax code, and reducing prescription drug costs.
35.
Steve Laffey was considered "the metabolic opposite of Chafee" by Joe Klein and was said to "enjoy populist tirades against corporate special interests ", favoring a robust alternative energy plan for national security reasons.
36.
Steve Laffey ran against big government spending, being supported by the anti-tax group Club for Growth.
37.
Elizabeth Dole and then Rhode Island Republican Governor Donald Carcieri urged Steve Laffey to run for lieutenant governor, putting him in a strong position to seek the governorship.
38.
Steve Laffey instead elected to run for Senate, leading Dole and Karl Rove to actively work to defeat him.
39.
Steve Laffey debated Chafee which was aired nationally by C-SPAN.
40.
The national Republican establishment went after Steve Laffey, believing he was too conservative for heavily liberal Rhode Island.
41.
Steve Laffey was defeated by Chafee in the primary election on September 12,2006.
42.
Steve Laffey was believed to be a potential candidate for the governorship in 2010.
43.
Steve Laffey was rumored to be a candidate with incumbent Republican Donald Carcieri being unable to run for a third term due to Rhode Island's two term limit.
44.
Steve Laffey declared that he would run for Governor of Colorado in 2014, but withdrew from the race a week later after former Congressman Tom Tancredo declared that he would run.
45.
Steve Laffey sought the Republican nomination for Colorado's 4th congressional district in 2014.
46.
Steve Laffey announced he would run for president on February 2,2023, in the 2024 Republican primary.
47.
Steve Laffey pledged to visit every citizen in New Hampshire to discuss his ideas.
48.
Steve Laffey was the first Republican challenger against Donald Trump and positioned himself as an alternative to Trump, focusing on economic issues while criticizing the direction of the Republican Party.
49.
Steve Laffey withdrew from the race on October 6,2023, and left the Republican Party to become an independent.
50.
Steve Laffey is the author of the book Primary Mistake: How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006.
51.
In 2012, Steve Laffey released Fixing America, a documentary film about ordinary Americans and their suggestions on fixing the issues with America's economy and the disconnect with the political elite.
52.
Steve Laffey stated that he was inspired to write the film after attending the Sundance Film Festival with some people who wanted him to start a company with them.
53.
Steve Laffey stated that while doing a radio interview at the festival, he listened to someone who was making a movie and the idea to make a movie about fixing America was born.
54.
Steve Laffey stated that he learned over the years talking to ordinary people that Americans have better thoughts about fixing the economy than the people who they elect.
55.
Steve Laffey was the creator, producer and writer for the film.