Who Is Joe The Voter?
The Political Biography of Paul Kruger
The Name
Joe the Voter was born as a direct response to Sarah Palin’s “Joe the Plumber” moment in the 2008 campaign. The name felt like a reclaiming — not Joe the symbol of Republican talking points, but Joe the Voter, the ordinary citizen whose participation is the actual foundation of democracy.
Behind Joe the Voter is Paul Kruger, now 80 years old, living in Florida. The name is a brand. The man behind it is anything but ordinary.
Early Political Awakening
Paul was not always political. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, he attended OSU until Vietnam era protests, tear gas on campus, and the turbulence of the late 1960s interrupted his studies. It wasn’t until his late twenties — during the Watergate era — that his political consciousness fully awakened. Watching power abused and accountability demanded, he became a citizen who could no longer stay on the sidelines.
He began his political life as a Republican, even interviewing with the local Republican party about running for an open seat around 1980. But as Reagan reshaped the party, Paul found himself increasingly out of step. He didn’t leave the party — the party left him.
Prison Reform and the Road to Activism
The thread that defines Paul’s civic life is justice. His partnership with Ohio state legislator Don Gilmore — a Republican who served six terms in the Ohio House and sat on the legislative prison oversight committee — drew Paul early into the world of prison reform. Their shared law enforcement backgrounds formed the foundation of both their business partnership and their commitment to a fairer system.
That pull toward justice led him to CURE National — Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants — in 1985, the same year the organization went national. Paul eventually led CURE Florida and became a registered lobbyist in both Ohio and Washington DC.
Without a law degree, Paul wrote legal briefs and successfully argued a writ of mandamus that was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court, forcing the state to pay prisoners what they were legally owed for their labor under private contracts. The state appealed. Every appeal was rejected. Paul’s writ stood.
Through CURE, Paul built friendships with some of the most significant figures in American public life: Janet Reno, Evan Kemp and Justin Dart Jr. — architects of the Americans with Disabilities Act — all united through prison reform activism.
From Activist to Campaign Organizer
Paul’s activism extended into electoral politics. He did data work for the Obama campaigns and served as precinct captain in Putnam County, Florida during the Biden campaign — doing the grassroots ground-level work that keeps democracy functioning. It was through this work that he crossed paths with figures including Cory Booker and Donna Brazile.
He has spent decades writing letters to representatives and opinion pages, believing that the voice of an ordinary citizen — persistently, clearly expressed — still matters.
Joe the Voter: Digital Activism at 80
When arthritis ended his electrical work in the mid-1990s, Paul taught himself web development and launched his own hosting business, StuffDone.com. He now maintains multiple activist websites:
joethevoter.org — political news and activism
notcdc.info — public health information resource
b-legal.help — free constitutional resource for military and law enforcement on the right to refuse illegal orders
ijdefense.org — proposed nonprofit legal defense fund for independent journalists
He follows the Ukraine war on Telegram and donates monthly to a drone battalion. He builds his own computers. He hand codes HTML. He is, in his own words, “one guy trying to follow a flock of drunk birds.”
He has never had much money. He has never stopped working.
That’s who Joe the Voter is.
Updated as I am able.