Peter Agre - 2008 Senate Race

2008 Senate Race

Agre would emphasize health care and environmental issues rather than the Iraq war. He said, "The issues that were important to us at the millennium are still important today." He also feels that the US Senate could benefit from the perspective of a medical scientist. Then on August 29 he announced that he would not enter the race for the Senate seat, calculating his chances of success with a late start to obtain the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement against the huge personal cost and the termination of his federally-funded scientific research program and humanitarian service. An advocate for increased representation of science in government, he would not rule out the possibility of seeking public office in the future.

On 31 August 2007, an editorial article written by Agre appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In it, he formally withdrew himself from consideration for the US Senate race of 2008, and presented a historical review of select Minnesotans who contributed to human advancement, science and medicine. He excluded his own seminal contribution to the understanding of how water moves across our cells—something scientists had debated for a century.

Agre issued a call for a "...new century of science". In this editorial he highlighted the paucity of scientists in Congress. He also contemplated the fact that both Germany and China have leaders who are trained research scientists (Germany: Angela Merkel, Ph.D., Physical Chemistry; China: Hu Jintao, Hydraulic Engineer).

There has never been a Nobel Science Prize winner in the U.S. Senate. Nor has there ever been a Nobel Prize winner elected Governor in the United States.