Andrew Rice, Democratic State Senator from Oklahoma and candidate for U.S. Senate, has his opponent, Sen. Jim Inhofe, worried. He also has thousands of local and national supporters convinced that, as Sen. Chuck Schumer put it, Andrew Rice is "going to surprise people" with his Senate campaign.

Rice followed a unique path to politics, winning a state senate seat after graduating from Harvard Divinity School, doing humanitarian work in Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand, and working with nonprofits such as the Texas Faith Network and the Red River Democracy Project. After losing his brother David, who worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center, on 9/11, Andrew became an advocate for open government and policy reform. Along with other 9/11 victims' families, he helped push for the formation of the 9/11 Commission and opposed the Iraq War from the beginning.

After his advocacy work in Washington, Rice decided to become more involved in policy, and he wanted to start in his home state. He returned to Oklahoma and founded the Progressive Alliance Foundation, a non-profit that advocates fairness and equity in public policy.

Rice ran for Oklahoma State Senate in 2006 with a dedicated door-to-door campaign. After knocking on nearly every door in the district, he won his seat with almost 70% of the vote. While in the Senate, he has championed legislation to expand children's health care, established a Hunger Task Force, and authored legislation to aid caregivers for the elderly.

Now, Andrew Rice is taking on one of the most partisan and out-of-touch members of the U.S. Senate. Rather than taking action on issues such as climate change, energy policy, children's health care, and veterans' benefits, incumbent Sen. Jim Inhofe prefers to block progress toward solutions. A clear symbol of the status quo, Inhofe needs to know that the rest of us want to move forward. Andrew Rice plans to send him into retirement this November.

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