Dan Innis, Ohio University alumnus and former associate dean of Ohio University’s College of Business, has decided to run for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District seat in 2014.
Innis currently lives in New Hampshire, where he was dean of the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, a position he held for six years.
He had been considering his candidacy for some time now, but he said politics was not something he had always seen himself going into.
“I didn’t see myself doing this a year ago and I think that’s probably a good thing,” Innis said. “We need fewer politicians in D.C. and more real people.”
He graduated from OU’s Honors Tutorial College with a business degree in 1985 and served in OU’s administration from 1991 to 2002.
“Innis was very popular when he was at OU,” OU College of Business Dean Hugh Sherman said in a previous interview with The Post. “He cared very much for the students… He was a very personable guy.”
Despite the Republican Party’s traditional opposition to same-sex marriage, Innis, a married gay man, said he will likely be running on the GOP ticket.
Innis described his leaning as more Libertarian and small-government minded. He takes a firm stance against the Affordable Care Act and many of President Barack Obama’s policies.
“I think we’re at a point in our country’s history where there are a lot of important things happening and we need to make some solid decisions,” Innis said. “We need to do it now. And if we don’t it may be too late.”
In a video on his campaign site, Innis voiced his concerns with the way the federal government is operating.
“The federal government has to be put in its place,” Innis said in the video. He voices opposition to some ways the nation collects intelligence and how the Internal Revenue Service has operated. He also tackled Obama’s foreign policy, calling him “far too eager to send American troops abroad without a clear national security goal.”
Although issues of the day are at the forefront of his campaign, Innis said his experiences as a Bobcat in Athens will prove valuable while on the campaign trail.
“Some of those values I left OU with will guide me as I go through (the campaign).”
@LucasDaprile
