He has run for Congress in Texas, written a book titled “Liar Liar Cruz on Fire,” and served as a Catholic missionary to Cuba 22 times.
Now, Paul LeBon is poised to become the 16th Democrat running for the First Congressional District seat vacated by David N. Cicilline, who stepped down to lead the Rhode Island Foundation. He plans to announce his candidacy at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Quonset State Airport in North Kingstown.
LeBon, 66, is a Rhode Island native who lived in Texas for 32 years and now lives in his hometown, Woonsocket.
“The other candidates, in Texas speak, are all hat and no cattle,” LeBon told the Globe. “There are 15 people running who are talking about national issues like gay rights, saving our democracy, blah, blah, blah. No one is talking about jobs. Rhode Island is 40th in the nation in economic rankings. My entire reason for running and serving will to be to bring good quality, good paying jobs to Rhode Island – construction and manufacturing jobs.”
LeBon is the son of union textile workers who grew up in a Woonsocket tenement. As a teenager, he interned for former US Representative Fred St Germain, whom he described as his “role model for constituent service.”
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He attended what was then Rhode Island Junior College (now Community College of Rhode Island) before graduating from Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire with a marketing degree and Kennesaw State University in Georgia with a master’s of business administration.
LeBon had 30-year career consulting with Fortune 500 companies, first negotiating contracts with the airline industry, and then as a marketing, sales, and product development consultant.
In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Democrat in Texas, losing to Republican Michael C. Burgess, who received 75 percent of the vote to his 23 percent.
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LeBon has written nine books, including one titled “Syphilis Ate Al Capone’s Brain. Is Syphilis Eating Trump’s Brain?”
He said he has had four strokes, rendering his left hand useless. He said he was frustrated that voice recognition devices jumbled his Rhode Island accent, so he wrote another book – “JFK in Texas, a Two-Day Triumphant Journey Until...” – typing with one finger.
He said that in 2011 he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease and given a life expectancy of five to seven years. But with the help of a clinic in Cuba, he said his symptoms have been pushed back, and he has new book coming out titled “Outliving Myself – My Blessed Journey.”
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @FitzProv.