Kevin L. Wade

Kevin Lynn Wade, (b: 1951, Reading, Pennsylvania, USA) was the 2012 nominee of the Delaware State Republican Committee for the United States Senate.^[1]

Professional career

Wade founded Philadelphia Control Systems, Inc. in 1982.^[2] The specialty engineering firm, located in Christiana, Delaware, is focused on production-line and data automation engineering. The firm consults with industrial corporations, solving problems of production automation, such as optimizing software to efficiently run automated assembly line systems.

Early life

Wade was born into a working-class family in Pennsylvania and went to work in a steel mill three days after graduating from high school. While working at the mill, he noticed that many of his co-workers had missing fingers and serious scars from working with hot steel and the machinery at the mill. It was then that Wade decided to work his way through college. Among other jobs, Wade worked on North Sea offshore oil platforms in the 1980s.

Education

Wade received a Bachelor's of Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 1982.^[1] He attended college primarily at night while working in the Engineering Division at DuPont in Delaware. Wade has often said, "Everything good that's ever happened to me has happened in Delaware."

Personal life

Wade has been married to his wife, Gail, for 35 years. They have one (adopted) daughter and two grandchildren. He is Methodist and serves as a lector and finance board member at his church.

Political history

He was nominated by the Delaware GOP to run against incumbent US Senator Tom Carper at the Party's convention in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in April, 2012. Wade campaigned, with a largely volunteer staff, aggressively throughout the spring, summer and fall of 2012. Although the presence of 3rd party candidate Alex Pires was at first thought to be potentially beneficial to Wade, Wade lost to Carper on November 6th, 2012, garnering approximately 29% of the popular vote to Carper's 67%.

Platform

Wade describes himself as a "common sense conservative" and runs on a platform comprising policies to increase private sector jobs, reduce the size and cost of government, reduce the Federal debt and deficit, and increase domestic energy production. Wade proposes a "streamling" of the Federal government to reduce its cost to taxpayers and advocates a major simplification of the IRS code. He also calls for a reduction in Federal regulations, and proposes an increase in the production of domestic energy supplies. Wade says there are approximately 1 trillion barrels of crude in the U.S., says that oil should be kept in the U.S. for domestic consumption, and a $15/barrel royalty, paid to the U.S. government, which would pay off nearly all of the current $16 trillion national debt.

References