Senator Kid Rock? Is This an Attempt to Scare Voters?

Alexandra Rosenmann
,
 AlterNet
and
 Alexandra Rosenmann
July 13, 2017

Twenty years ago, Robert Ritchie, aka Kid Rock, wanted to be a cowboy. Now with a reality show host wreaking havoc in the White House, it appears Ritchie wants to become a United States senator.

On Wednesday, the aging rocker and long-time Republican supporter tweeted the following:

By Thursday morning, Fox News was speculating about the native of suburban Detroit possibly running in 2018.

"What are his chances of winning, Kid Rock?" Maria Bartiromo asked a panel on Thursday's "Mornings with Maria." 

"I think, if he runs, he'll win," Tom Shillue answered matter-of-factly. "I think it's that simple."

According to Shillue, the celebrity factor "doesn't work as well for Democrats," because "they don't have the pulse of the American people."

"But Kid Rock. I mean, Kid Rock, he's America!" he gushed.

Ritchie endorsed GOP nominees Donald Trump in 2016 and Mitt Romney in 2012. But Michigan Republican Party chairman Ron Weiser remains skeptical of the musician's possible Senate run. 

"It could be a publicity ploy. Don't know," Weiser said.

"ARE YOU SCARED?" Ritchie's website asks Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who's up for re-election in 2018.

"I concede he is better at playing the guitar, and I'll keep doing what I do best, which is fighting for Michigan," Stabenow said in a statement.

A rotating slogan box on Ritchie's homepage includes such gems such as "PIMP of the NATION," "I'll ROCK the PARTY," "Get in the SENATE and try to HELP someone," an allusion to Kid's breakthrough 1998 single "I'm The Kind of Guy Who Takes His Six-Year-Old Kid to a Saw Movie," and "You never met a POLITICIAN quite like ME."

Well, except maybe for Donald Trump.

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