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Luke Wenke: Difference between revisions
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==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
===Early Life=== | |||
Luke Marshal Wenke was born April 15, 1992 at Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk, New York,to Kevin Wenke and Janet McCaul, who were students at SUNY Fredonia. He graduated from Salamanca High School in 2010 and attended Jamestown Community College for three semesters as a music major. | Luke Marshal Wenke was born April 15, 1992 at Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk, New York,to Kevin Wenke and Janet McCaul, who were students at SUNY Fredonia. He graduated from Salamanca High School in 2010 and attended Jamestown Community College for three semesters as a music major. | ||
===Politics=== | |||
Wenke has been a member of the Libertarian Party since October 2013. He has explained that Jesse Ventura was his first political influence in high school. During the 2008 election Wenke, he noticed Ventura giving commentary on the news and was inspired by the idea of an independent outsider breaking the two party paradigm and getting elected Governor. Wenke was registered Republican for a few years into his adulthood, having supported Carl Paladino for Governor of New York in 2010 and later on Ron Paul in the 2012 Republican primaries, before having shifted all support over to Gary Johnson’s 2012 run for President. | Wenke has been a member of the Libertarian Party since October 2013. He has explained that Jesse Ventura was his first political influence in high school. During the 2008 election Wenke, he noticed Ventura giving commentary on the news and was inspired by the idea of an independent outsider breaking the two party paradigm and getting elected Governor. Wenke was registered Republican for a few years into his adulthood, having supported Carl Paladino for Governor of New York in 2010 and later on Ron Paul in the 2012 Republican primaries, before having shifted all support over to Gary Johnson’s 2012 run for President. | ||
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Wenke has been subjected to constant social media censorship, but has been the founder of such Facebook groups as Olean Politics and Let’s Bitch About Cuomo. In 2012, Wenke used the Topix forum website to swirl rumors about a potential run for Mayor of Salamanca, having successfully sparked the entire Salamanca area’s awareness about the potential run. Wenke did not live in Salamanca at the time but “since everyone knew former Mayor Carmen Vecchiarella didn’t even live in town, why shouldn’t I use someone else’s address as my voting address and run anyways?” Wenke ultimately did not run for the position, but this Topix stunt was early proof of Wenke’s “internet yeller” abilities. | Wenke has been subjected to constant social media censorship, but has been the founder of such Facebook groups as Olean Politics and Let’s Bitch About Cuomo. In 2012, Wenke used the Topix forum website to swirl rumors about a potential run for Mayor of Salamanca, having successfully sparked the entire Salamanca area’s awareness about the potential run. Wenke did not live in Salamanca at the time but “since everyone knew former Mayor Carmen Vecchiarella didn’t even live in town, why shouldn’t I use someone else’s address as my voting address and run anyways?” Wenke ultimately did not run for the position, but this Topix stunt was early proof of Wenke’s “internet yeller” abilities. | ||
In 2018 Wenke organized and recorded several live videos with New York gubernatorial candidate [[Larry Sharpe]] in his Olean Politics group on Facebook, which achieved tens of thousands of views. Wenke also organized “Twitter Hounds” on behalf of the campaign, which was a united effort of hundreds of Libertarians all at once Tweeting towards big media sources and successfully getting Libertarians on big shows. | ===Libertarian Party Involvement=== | ||
In 2018, Wenke organized and recorded several live videos with New York gubernatorial candidate [[Larry Sharpe]] in his Olean Politics group on Facebook, which achieved tens of thousands of views. Wenke also organized “Twitter Hounds” on behalf of the campaign, which was a united effort of hundreds of Libertarians all at once Tweeting towards big media sources and successfully getting Libertarians on big shows. In December, he was elected Chair of the Cattaraugus County Libertaran Party. | |||
In 2019, Wenke ran for Cattaraugus County Coroner while serving as county chairman. Using the campaign slogan, “Any Schmuck Can Run For Coroner," Wenke used his local name recognition to remind everyone that as long as we have a government anyone, should be able to run and get have a chance to get elected. As of 2019, Cattaraugus County did not have an elected county executive, the as the County Legislature elects it’s own leader. Wenke used the coroner run as a pseudo-county executive run to talk about county issues and libertarian solutions for them. According to Wenke, his Republican opposition attempted to publicly humiliate him by digging up pictures from Wenke’s FetLife account and posting them all over Facebook. Wenke’s response was to post a picture of himself in bdsm gear, with his coroner campaign sign, and a piece of paper that read “People on welfare can’t afford expensive bondage gear!” as a way to fire back at Republicans. Wenke ended up receiving 3% of the vote. | In 2019, Wenke ran for Cattaraugus County Coroner while serving as county chairman. Using the campaign slogan, “Any Schmuck Can Run For Coroner," Wenke used his local name recognition to remind everyone that as long as we have a government anyone, should be able to run and get have a chance to get elected. As of 2019, Cattaraugus County did not have an elected county executive, the as the County Legislature elects it’s own leader. Wenke used the coroner run as a pseudo-county executive run to talk about county issues and libertarian solutions for them. According to Wenke, his Republican opposition attempted to publicly humiliate him by digging up pictures from Wenke’s FetLife account and posting them all over Facebook. Wenke’s response was to post a picture of himself in bdsm gear, with his coroner campaign sign, and a piece of paper that read “People on welfare can’t afford expensive bondage gear!” as a way to fire back at Republicans. Wenke ended up receiving 3% of the vote. | ||