Ex-Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey Running For President

CRANSTON, RI — Former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey launched a bid Thursday, seeking the Republican nomination for president of the United States.

"I am running for President of the United States because we must directly confront our problems," Laffey said. "My party, and this country, have avoided directly confronting our problems for many years, and the results have been disastrous. Our country has done the equivalent of using Band-Aids in place of major surgery. Somehow, we have 'gotten by'. But because the public has borrowed over $20 trillion, the day of reckoning is upon us. My goal is to change the very nature of the debate."

Laffey served as Cranston's mayor from 2003 to 2007. As mayor, Laffey took over the city with the lowest bond rating in the U.S. His supporters credit him with initiating the most rapid fiscal turnaround in American history. The bond rating went up 8 notches in four years in office. A bankrupt pension system was fixed, with assets rising 500 percent.

Then in 2006, Laffey ran for U.S. Senate but lost the Republican primary to then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee.

Laffey then moved to Colorado and ran for a U.S. House seat in 2014. He placed fourth in a four-way GOP primary there. He then ran a ranch and made a film called "Fixing America."

Laffey faces long odds in what will likely be a crowded field in the Republican presidential primary. The field is likely to include former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others with better name recognition and financial support.

"What many people now call the third rail of politics, I have entitled the 'Laffey Lane,'" Laffey said in his campaign announcement. "But that is what we need now: Someone who has the proven talent to convince others, and to change votes. I have a talent, through the power of my ideas, to convince people to change their minds."

"Today, most people simply go with the generic platform set by career politicians," Laffey added. "They believe that those politicians have but one vote to yield. But that is not enough for our country to be successful. Much of my life has been spent convincing other people to do what is necessary to fix a problem, convincing them of things that they originally thought they would never do."