Coffee with candidate: Abel Collins

(WPRI) - Independent nominee for US House District 2, Abel Collins, joined The Rhode Show Tuesday as part of "Coffee with Candidates" segment.

Collins is a graduate of South Kingstown High School. He went on to study at Brown University and graduated with a degree in political science in 2000.

He was a raised a Quaker, and spent a lot of time with his family in the Unitarian Universalist faith community.

In his younger days, Collins was a snake-catching turtle-hunter who could name all the birds he saw; he identified just as closely with nature as he did with people, and the seeds environmentalism sprouted early in his life.

Throughout his life, Collins has worked in many different fields; from construction, to landscaping, to dealing poker at Foxwoods, to trapping mosquitoes for infectious diseases testing, to delivering mail.

He's also added Clean Water Action, the Apeiron Institute, and the Sierra Club to his resume. As for the Sierra Club, "I currently serve as the Rhode Island Chapter's program manager," said Collins.

Collins sees himself as "merely a concerned citizen, who happens to be running for Congress as an Independent."

His reason for running, "I want to be able to look my children in the eye in twenty years, and tell them honestly, "I did everything I could to put things right."’