Pizza delivery man for Senate: Delete all the NSA’s files

Sean Haugh is sitting at the bar in jeans and a t-shirt, holding court about the problems in Washington. Occasionally, he pauses to take a big gulp out of a pint glass emblazoned with a picture of libertarian economist Murray Rothbard. It’s a scene you might not expect to come across at a bar in Durham, N.C., where Haugh lives. It’s also at least slightly bizarre for a campaign ad in a tightly contested race.

“I'm getting a large amount of support just because I'm a regular working guy that you can sit down and have a beer with,” said Haugh, 53. “And both of my opponents make it quite clear that they're really not interested in hearing anything from the people at all,” said the pizza delivery man who’s Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, running against Republican Thom Tillis and Democratic incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan.

Haugh's YouTube videos — where he sips craft beer in his campaign manager’s basement while discussing major political issues — aren’t the only part of his campaign raising eyebrows. In general, this midterm election has become a referendum on the Obama Administration’s handling of the economy, healthcare and national security. But Haugh has campaigned on his own terms, running on positions like shutting down the National Security Agency (NSA), ending North Carolina’s state income tax, opening America’s borders and legalizing drugs.

Much of Haugh’s campaign focuses on ending what he calls “foreign entanglements” — war, occupation and overseas bases. He grows especially animated when discussing the mass surveillance programs revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

“We ran Richard Nixon out of town for just bugging one office, and now we have a situation where the government is collecting everybody's data on everything,” Haugh said. If elected, Haugh has promised to close the NSA and delete its mass surveillance records.

That’s perhaps an unusual stance to take at a time when even the most basic NSA reforms have stalled in Congress, and when the public debate is turning away from fears about government surveillance toward renewed threats from foreign terrorist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). But Haugh believes his plan would leave national security intact.

“We have the technology, and we can get warrants to actually collect that data on people,” he said. “And we don't need the National Security Agency to do that.”