There was nowhere to hide from the sun late Thursday morning as Bob Carr, 50, stood out in front of his weathered white barn at 3720 Main Road in Tiverton, waiting for people to stop and endorse him and talking to those who did.

Carr, a farmer who leases fields across Tiverton, Little Compton and Westport, didn’t mind the heat, and anyway there was some expediency needed, he said.

He’s got until the end of the day Friday, July 10, to collect and hand in the 1,000 registered voters’ signatures he needs to get on the ballot for the race for Rhode Island governor in November.

He’s gotten about 300 so far, leaving a balance of 700 to go.

He knows he’s a long shot. He knows he doesn’t have the funds to compete with the establishment. And he knows that as an Independent, he doesn’t have the deep well of support that others might count on.

But those hurdles are insignificant in the face of trying to make a difference, he said.

“I’m sitting here getting squeezed. I’m an honest, hard-working guy. I could do a lot of good for a lot of different people.”

What happens if he doesn’t get the signatures needed?

“I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep on keeping on until the end. I’ll do a write-in campaign — I don’t quit.”

Getting harder and harder

Carr has never been a politician. Instead, he’s done a little bit of everything, from construction to farming, and he loves his life working in the farm coast — “it’s the peace,” he said. “I love my cows and my chickens, and it gets in your blood. At the end of the day you can look back and see what you did, and there’s that satisfaction. People say it’s a lot of work, and I say if you love it, you’re not working.”

But there’s not a lot of money in it, and between taxes, insurance and all the other financial requirements of being in business for oneself, it’s hard to make ends meet. He worries what will happen when he’s no longer able to work to the extent that he now does.

Similarly, he worries about his friends, many of them in the trades, who like him are being drained of their future in 100 different ways, he said.

He said someone needs to bring an end to the excessive taxes and  regulation that makes the lives of the people he sees day in and day out so difficult: The truckers who have to pay thousands to register their vehicles. The construction workers who have to pay into workman’s compensation despite the massive holes in the system. The families who are being priced out of homes by state and local laws that allow developers to cash in by exploiting the state’s affordable housing shortage. People who can’t afford health insurance.

So he decided to start a modest campaign, and to date has spent just $460 of his own money to have flyers, signs and sign-up sheets printed. He said he will not accept any campaign contributions.

One of the complications of running for statewide office like governor is having to create different sign-up sheets for registered voters from each town. So he has Tiverton sign-ups, Little Compton sign-ups, Portsmouth and Bristol and beyond. So far, most of his endorsements have come from residents who see his sign and stop. But he’s been getting out to other places as much as possible.

He said he won’t be deterred if he falls short.

“I won’t give up. No one’s stepping up, (but) someone needs to.”

Carr said he’ll be collecting signatures at his farm all day Friday.