If the star of a reality TV show can become president, then anyone can go into politics, right? That appears to be the thinking of Republicans in Michigan, who are apparently considering asking Kid Rock to run for the US Senate next year.
Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, reports that Rock’s name came up during discussions about the state’s senatorial race at a convention of Michigan Republicans. If selected as candidate, Rock – real name Robert Ritchie – would be running against the Democrat incumbent Debbie Stabenow, in what is traditionally a safe Democrat seat. However, Donald Trump narrowly took Michigan in the presidential election, winning by 10,704 votes, or a margin of 0.23%.
Rock has previously supported Republican presidential candidates. He backed Mitt Romney in 2012, then Trump in 2016, and sells Trump merchandise on his website. During the primary campaign last year, he told Rolling Stone: “I’m digging Trump. I feel like a lot of people, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, feel like if you get Hillary or Bernie, or you get Rubio or Cruz or whoever, there’s going to be the same shit. Has that much fucking changed when anyone’s in office, whether it’s been a Republican or a Democrat in office, in our lifetime, anyway? I haven’t really seen this big, like, fucking change. Obviously some people fucked up. That’s a long debate. My feeling: let the motherfucking business guy run it like a fucking business. And his campaign has been entertaining as shit. ”
His political views tend towards the libertarian and are strongly anti-left. In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone he referred to then president, Barack Obama, as “Obummer”, although he did play at Obama’s first inauguration.
That same year, he told the Observer: “I am definitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issues. I am no fan of abortion, but it’s not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I don’t look forward to marrying gay people, but I’m not opposed to it.
