'American Idol' singer Clay Aiken to run for Congress in North Carolina

[underpants]

Source: Reuters

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Former "American Idol" singer Clay Aiken said on Wednesday he will run for U.S. Congress as a Democrat in his home state of North Carolina, where he once worked as a special education teacher.

Aiken, 35, is likely to face a tough battle in his efforts to unseat Republican Representative Renee Ellmers in the state's conservative 2nd congressional district.

Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA140XU20140205?irpc=932

[Rider3]

1. Good luck, Mr. Aiken

You'd bring some kindness and empathy to NC. They could use that.

[Zen Democrat]

2. His YouTube announcement is great. He'll be a formidable candidate against Ellmers.

GO CLAY!

[AllyCat]

3. Not my favorite entertainer, but if could get behind him on a run in NC

[R Merm]

4. His background in Special Education,

will make him uniquely qualified to deal with the dysfunctional Congress.

[toby jo]

5. Maybe he can pull enough of the

right wing youth vote to squeeze on in and do some good.

[beachbum bob]

6. good for Clay

and he has a chance. Name recognition for starters and he'll be attacked which helps attract support and voters

[liskddksil]

7. If he drives youth turn-out in the district it could also have reverse coat-tails for

Senator Hagen. This is a very good get since he has no voting record on which he can be attacked. However, his teaching experience and post-idol charity work can be categorized as public service.

[struggle4progress]

8. He has no political experience and evidently plans to run one of those "I'm an outsider" campaigns

[jeff47]

9. It's a red district in NC. Can't win with a "traditional" D candidate. (nt)

[wfhell]

12. Not necessarily true

Historically, it's a Blue Dog district. IIRC, only 2 R's have held it in over a century: Ellmers and Funderburk (who won it for 1 term during the Revolution of '94 then got his ass kicked by Bobby Etheridge who was quite popular here for the next 10-12 yrs). It's a mix of urban & rural, definitely has broken R for the last 3 cycles, but if Aiken runs as a Blue Dog - and wins the D primary, of course - he definitely has a chance. He's openly religious, very family-friendly, seemingly populist... The "gay thing" may hurt a little in Harnett and Randolph Counties in particular but there are some fairly urban / suburban areas where it'll be a nonissue. And Ellmers is pretty closely aligned with the Teabaggers, which could bite her in the ass due largely to the NC Lege's overreaching for the past couple sessions.

edited for clarity

[struggle4progress]

15. It's a gerrymandered district. Until 2010, Bob Etheridge (D) was the Representative for years.

Our failure to adequately mobilize against Ellmers' 2010 challenge led to Etheridge's defeat, with a margin under 1500 votes

The district was gerrymandered after our loss of the state legislature in Fall 2010; and as a result of the gerrymander, Ellmers won by about 45000 votes in 2012



To clarify the effects of the gerrymandering further, note: in 2012, although a majority in NC actually voted for D candidates for the state legislature legislature, the Rs won 65% of the legislative seats and so outnumber Ds in the current legislature almost 2:1

To win back some of these gerrymandered districts, we will need excellent candidates, excellent campaigning, and excellent GOTV work

But Aiken doesn't bring those skills to the table: he has no background in law or public policy; there's no reason to think he knows anything about issues in the district; he has no campaign experience

[mwooldri]

10. I say Go Clay :) but wouldn't he be better off running in the 6th?

No incumbent to run against. As good a person as Tony Foriest is (he wants to re-run 2012), it would need something extra to get the voters to the polls to vote for the Democratic Party selection.

[struggle4progress]

16. Laura Fjeld is running in the 6th

[jsr]

11. Gutsy move. Kudos to him.

[Lex]

13. I was skeptical but his youtube video announcement is impressive. (link)

[erpowers]

14. Looks Like a Good Candidate

I saw him on CNN and I thought he looked like he would make a good candidate. He handled the interview well. He answered the questions well. The only time he stumbled was at the end of the interview when he was asked for his campaign slogan. He paused for a few second before saying he wanted to get America working together again. He then pointed out that before that moment he had not had a campaign slogan.

[freshwest]

17. OMG, I hope he wins! She is a horrible human being. n/t