American Idol Crooner Clay Aiken and North Carolina native considers challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers for her 2nd District congressional seat.
Former American Idol Crooner Clay Aiken contemplates a run for Congress. Anonymous sources claim Aiken aims to take North Carolina’s 2nd District congressional seat, The Raw Story reports.
Prior to Republicans snagging the seat in 2010, it’d been in Democratic hands. According to N.C. conventional wisdom, taking back the seat isn’t impossible. Candidates can file until Feb. 28 to run in the May 6 primary.
A primary could pit Aiken against former N.C. Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco. Crisco served for 4 years in Democratic Gov. Bev. Perdue’s administration.
Speaking of Perdue, Aiken is rumored to be working with Democratic strategist, who worked with both the former governor and former Vice President Al Gore. Yet another anonymous source claims he’s also talked to pollsters at Washington, D.C.-based Heart Research Association.
This won’t be Aiken’s first foray into politics. He spoke out against North Carolina’s Amendment One, which banned gay marriage. It became law in May 2012. His vocal opposition included an appearance on CBS News? Face The Nation. Sadly, he falsely predicted the outcome.
Speaking about the amendment, Aiken was more optimistic than we:
I think as people in North Carolina start to look at this amendment and realize what it’s doing, not just for same-sex couples but for straight couples as well, they’re going to reject it.
However, Aiken also offered an astute, but somewhat controversial, historical perspective on the situation.
I really believe that in the next 20 years we’re going to look back on this and be sort of ashamed of the fact that we were against this, just as we are ashamed today that we didn’t let people of different races get married.
Edited/Published by: SB
