Former NFL Player to Run for Congress in Wash.

Tea Party Republican looking to take seat of retiring Doc Hastings

Clint Didier, ex-Washington Redskins tight end and Tea Party ally, on Monday became the first candidate to formally declare for the U.S. House seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.

Didier mounted a 2010 U.S. Senate campaign that was endorsed Sarah Palin and libertarian Rep. Ron Paul.  He ran for State Land Commissioner in 2012 and lost to incumbent Democrat Peter Goldmark in 2012.

"You have seen my Senate run, you have seen my lands commissioner run and my message has not changed," Didier told a Pasco news conference.  "It's the same.  We have to get government under control."

He may have been a tight end, but Didier has been flanked right even in Washington's Republican Party.

"Government is not a provider: Government is a predator," he said in 2010.