Q&A with Senate candidate Sean Haugh, 'Emperor of Pizza'

Sean Haugh, a 53-year-old pizza delivery man, had no intention of running for political office again. But the veteran Libertarian Party candidate and Durham resident is slated to face incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, Speaker of the N.C. House, in November.

Assistant State & National Editor Hayley Fowler spoke with Haugh about his love of pizza and politics.

The Daily Tar Heel: Do you enjoy being a pizza delivery man?

Sean Haugh: I enjoy it a lot more than I expected to, you know, because everybody loves a pizza guy. I’m not going to get rich off of it, but it certainly pays the bills.

I get to bring joy and relief to 20 families a night. Children revere me. That’s probably one of the best perks of the job, aside from getting paid. You ring the doorbell and you hear on the other side, “Oh pizza!” I’ll drive down the street and kids treat me like I’m the emperor, you know, “Emperor of Pizza.”

I get to see five sunsets a week since I work evenings.

DTH: Do you think you’ve gained skills as a pizza delivery man that will help you in the Senate race?

SH: Oh absolutely. I work for a living, unlike my opponents. I know what life is like — to try and pay the bills and make ends meet.

I get to meet, every day, people from all walks of life. If you spend ... all of your time underneath that little dome in either Washington or Raleigh, you lose track of what life is like for everybody who isn’t part of that political class.

DTH: Tell me about your political career so far.

SH: I really enjoy the campaign because it’s just my show. I don’t ever have any questions about compromising my principles to get something done.

This is the sixth time I’ve run for office ... I ran for this Senate seat in 2002. The whole world has changed since 2002 in a wonderful way because, back then, 12 years ago, we didn’t have social media — no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, anything like that.

So now it’s so much easier for me to be able to get my message out inexpensively.

DTH: What do you hope to accomplish should you win?

SH: The main issue is to stop all war. We’ve been in a state of war officially for about 15 years now. We just keep creating new, stronger, better-organized enemies who are all succeeding with our weapons and our training. I’m also very concerned about militarization of police at home.

We just have trillions of trillions of dollars in debt now that the next generation has to pay off. If we were able to eliminate all of the costs of the war, that would give us a real advantage to be able to balance the budget.

DTH: What do you hope to accomplish with your campaign?

SH: I would like to see the policy and issues that I’m talking about have more resonance. I want to give people hope. If there is any kind of legacy to the campaign, I’m hoping that somebody can come after me and stand on my shoulders and keep building up public support for the message to stop all war.

DTH: Do you know where you stand in the polls currently?

SH: Well, depends on what polls you look at, anywhere from 8-11 percent (approval).

You look at (the polls carefully and) you realize the Republican candidate (Tillis) clearly has no chance in this race. A lot of the pollsters like to cast this as some kind of horse race, when really the only candidate in this race who has a chance to unseat the Democratic incumbent is myself. Even though Kay Hagan herself is also meek and vulnerable, you can’t beat somebody with nobody.