Loophole Lets Candidate Run for Congress in 4 States

Allan Levene is running for Congress in his home state of Georgia, but if he loses in the Republican primary in May, he's got a Plan B, a Plan C, and a Plan D. As Fox News explains, Levene is actually on the ballot for congressional seats in four states—Georgia, Minnesota, Hawaii, and Michigan. How so? Levene, a British native who became a naturalized US citizen decades ago, found a loophole in election law. It stipulates that candidates in a general election be a legal resident of the state they hope to represent, but the law makes no mention of primaries.

Levene, then, picked three additional races where he thinks he has a shot. If he wins outside of Georgia, he'll quickly work on becoming a legal resident of that state. "I’m a practical man," the 64-year-old told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a previous story. "I don’t have time to do this two years at a time, since I expect to be dead in 10 years." The FEC says the strategy is legal as long as Levene keeps his fund-raising separate for each state, reports CNN. "I'm not carpet bagging in the sense that I want to take advantage of the district that I'm running for," he insists. "I will work very hard for whichever district that I'm elected to." (More Allan Levene stories.)