Tea Party activists want to draft Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to run for president in 2016, but the first-term senator has a higher priority: establishing the Tea Party as a permanent force in American politics by rewriting the Republican policy playbook.

Lee gave a detailed prescription for solving America’s “inequality crisis” in the Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, replete with praise for specific bills introduced by various lawmakers in the House and Senate. The speech got some Tea Party activists hoping he’ll run for president in 2016.

“You would not believe how many people have emailed me, texted me, contacted me saying ‘Mike Lee for president, Mike Lee for president,’ ” Amy Kremer, president of the Tea Party Express, sponsor of the now-annual response to President Obama’s State of the Union, told the Washington Examiner. “He really connected with people with his State of the Union speech. I think that’s fantastic.”

But Lee said he has “no desire” for that job.