Meet Kurt O’Keefe, Legislative Liaison

On a warm summer day, nine-year-old Kurt sat indoors watching the credentials committee hearing of the 1964 Democrat National Convention on a small black and white television. His father had been a precinct delegate, so he knew the process and was engaged. Around age 11, he began fixating on becoming President of the United States. This was no passing fancy.

With 18-year-olds getting the right to vote just 29 days after he turned 18, Kurt ran for precinct delegate. May 16th this year is the 50th anniversary of the first time Kurt voted, and the first time being elected precinct delegate.

As a delegate, Kurt attended Michigan GOP state conventions from 1972 through 1976. He attended the National Convention in Miami in 1972 as a Young Voters for President. In 1976, he went to the Kansas City Convention with the Michiganders for Reagan. 

By 1980, Kurt was a purist Libertarian and that party’s candidate for a U of M Regent slot.

Finally recognizing that both political parties say one thing and do another, Kurt became interested in structural reforms as the only way to return our government to the system divinely inspired by the Founders.

In March of 2016, Kurt awoke from a nightmare with his yet unborn grandchildren asking him what he did the year Donald Trump ran against Hillary Clinton. He didn’t have an answer. 

Unable to live with the idea of a Hillary win, Kurt went to work full-throttle on the Ted Cruz Campaign, finishing as treasurer of the Cruz Super PAC. Then he learned about COS and accepted an email inviting him to become one of the commissioners of the Convention of States Simulated Convention. Kurt describes that event as, “a fantastic, surreal experience…how another gathering of patriots across America could work together to save our country.”

Like many others in our grassroots movement, O’Keefe has transitioned from one volunteer role to another, finally landing where he belongs -- as Legislative Liaison where he can apply the knowledge acquired and relationships built over the last 50 years. He feels as though he has found God’s will for him here on earth.

Kurt and his legislative team are actively pursuing commitments from our state legislators to help us pass this resolution.