Americans are revolting against the Washington establishment. We saw the first uprising with the election of Chris Christie as Governor of New Jersey, and from there it seemed like a domino effect -Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts, Bob Bennett's loss in Utah, and the list goes on.

The people have lost confidence in Washington, and with that loss of confidence, Washington incumbents have forfeited the support of voters. In just two years, federal policymakers passed a "stimulus" package that didn't create jobs, pushed through so-called health care reform that failed to fix our broken system, raised the debt limit twice, and overhauled Wall Street, punishing the financial sector but failing to remedy the problem.

From so-called health reform to the overhaul of Wall Street, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, like many other Washington insiders, acted as a better servant of her Party than the people of New York. However, because she was put in office by the Party establishment rather than the people, her loyalty is not surprising. An aficionado of the liberal, "tax, spend and redistribute" orientation that is destroying our state and our nation and jeopardizing the American dream, Gillibrand was and is the perfect rubber stamp for business as usual in Washington - a choice New York's Democratic establishment was comfortable making when they appointed her.

Certainly, Gillibrand tries to portray herself as a moderate, but her record paints a much different picture. She voted for the $787 billion economic stimulus package that was supposed to create jobs, but New York has lost 110,000 jobs since then. She voted for the trillion dollar health care reform legislation, which disproportionately raised taxes on New Yorkers. And her wishy-washy position on bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to the backyards of New York forces many to question if she is standing up for the Empire State in Washington.

Gillibrand clearly joined the Washington establishment when she was appointed to the U.S. Senate, and her decision to vote as a Democrat rather than a New Yorker solidified her vulnerability this election. With five weeks to go, the gap between Gillibrand and me is quickly waning while pundits across the nation are recognizing that I pose a serious threat to Gillibrand's candidacy and the composition of the Senate.

My own journey to candidacy has been a fight against the establishment. The party bosses tried to keep me out of the race at the convention. So, I went to the people. When New Yorkers were given a chance to have their voices heard, they chose my message of job creation and fiscal accountability; they voted to put me on the Republican Party line this November.

New York's election battle is just a microcosm of a nationwide revolt against politics as usual. With nearly 15 million Americans unemployed (almost 1 million of which are citizens of the Empire State) and countless others underemployed, Washington's adherence to the status quo has failed to deliver meaningful solutions.

Most notably, the Tea Party movement has encapsulated voter anger. Contrary to what is being said by the mainstream media and political establishment, however, this movement is not an "Astroturf" movement that is run by a few. Instead, it is a grassroots movement to take back our government and return it to sanity. I want to give political expression to this sentiment, and I want to bring genuine, commonsense solutions to the problems that have made an overwhelming majority of our citizens angry and frustrated.

I am ready to go to Washington and tell them what they need to hear - not what they want to hear. That's what the people want, that's what the people need, and that's what the people will get, if they put me in the U.S. Senate.

In the United States, the ballot box is a powerful tool. It has the power to reverse the status quo that has failed to solve the people's problems. It has the authority to hold the government accountable for out-of-control spending policies. It has the ability to empower a revolution.