I officially registered my Senate candidacy on the anniversary of FDR signing 1935’s National Labor Relations Act, on July 5.

As the only Senate candidate to file and win a National Labor Relations Board case, July 5th is an appropriate and auspicious date. Labor rights is the issue that pulled me out of high tech and back into art and humanities. My NLRB case opposed the offshoring of jobs in my community by using the same technology that made the offshoring possible: the internet. Sadly, this textbook labor rights violation took five years to resolve in my favor. By then the jobs and factory were in Malaysia and I had resigned in protest.

I support the Pro Act and other reforms that protect workers and prevent the offshoring of jobs. Congress has finally recognized the value of high tech jobs and passed the Chips Act providing corporate incentives to repatriate factories. It would be simpler to enforce the existing laws protecting people. I can speak from personal experience that no American worker would offshore his job if there was a viable option to organize for mutual benefit.

I worked for Hewlett-Packard’s Signal Analysis Division which was spun-off as Agilent Technologies. I joined HP because I believed in their corporate values, The HP Way My CEO had the opportunity to follow the law and let employees join together for mutual benefit. He chose short term profits over people. He ignored the law because it had minor penalties for violations. Even the most ethical corporations will ignore laws that are poorly enforced and have insignificant penalties. When my job launching new products included offshoring production I balked at the mission and chose my community over my career.

Now I use my Systems Engineering skills for the good of the people. Systems Engineering isn’t rocket science, but our handbook came from NASA. Launching New Products requires a holistic view. “We choose to launch new products not because it is easy, but because it is hard. Our unique competency grants us market advantage over our competition.” to paraphrase JFK’s NASA moon shot speech.

I’m running for Senate because it is the root of our system failure. Congress must pass legislation for the good of the nation, and the Senate filibuster rule has killed debate on popular and overdue bills. Congress has ignored the stakeholders and is only focused on the shareholders.

I am running because there is a Leadership vacuum in Congress and nature abhors a vacuum, just ask NASA. There are no longer inspirational leaders like FDR and JFK. I will work for the Stakeholders instead of the largest donors. I will work for change. I am John Rose and I rose for US. I want you to rise with me, join together, and vote!

Stars and Stripes Forever!

-John