NC-06: Ex-'American Idol' star Clay Aiken (D) announces bid for Congress

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Ex-'American Idol' star Clay Aiken announces bid for Congress

By Shawna Mizelle, CNN
Updated 0016 GMT (0816 HKT) January 11, 2022

(CNN) — Clay Aiken, widely known for his stint on "American Idol," announced Monday that he's launching another bid for Congress in North Carolina.

"If the loudest and most hateful voices think they are going to speak for us, just tell them I'm warming up the old vocal chords," Aiken said in an announcement video posted on Twitter, taking a jab at Republican Reps. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. He cited challenging White supremacy, racism and homophobia as contributing reasons for his campaign launch.

Aiken is running as a Democrat to represent the newly drawn 6th district, which includes much of the area that was represented by Democratic Rep. David Price. Price, who was first elected in 1986, announced he would not seek reelection in October.

In his announcement, Aiken highlighted issues like income equality, access to health care and climate change while promising to focus on infrastructure and inflation if elected.

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/10/politics/clay-aiken-congress-north-carolina/index.html

[LaMouffette]

1. Well, cool! Go Clay! I think having Democratic candidates with "star power" would be helpful to us.

I can't help but think that Trump's stint on The Apprentice was the first step in his becoming embedded in his future cult members' brains. Trump is an example of evil getting a leg up through TV celebrity. Clay would be an example of a decent human being doing the same thing, but with moral motives.