Watkins ran for Congress in Indianapolis in 1984 , receiving 41 percent of the vote . In 1986 , he moved back to Philadelphia and served as an assistant to Sheldon Hackney , president at the University of Pennsylvania . Watkins was also an assistant pastor at Mount Carmel Baptist Church . When Quayle ran for vice president with George Bush in 1988 , Watkins worked on the Bush-Quayle election campaign . He later served as associate director of the Office of Public Liaison in the White House from 1989 to 1991 . In 1991 , Watkins started a strategic planning firm , explaining , " If I really wanted to help people the way I wanted , I had to make some money . " In 1994 , Watkins announced his candidacy for the Republican party nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Harris Wofford . Watkins struggled with raising money , once cancelling a bus trip because a donor failed to offer a vehicle . He lost in the primary to Rick Santorum . In 1998 , he became pastor for Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church . Watkins gave the invocation on the opening day of the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
2000 Republican National Convention
2000 Republican National Convention
Joseph P. Watkins