Clay Aiken Is Running for Congress

Singer Clay Aiken has officially made his bid for a congressional seat on North Carolina, and his fame will certainly shine and international spotlight on the race.

He doesn't pull punches. In the first seconds of his YouTube campaign video Aiken, 35, says, "I think that Congress is dysfunctional at this point." Aiken described a platform based on jobs and the economy, and adult job training education programs.

"The Second Congressional District is one of the most likely targets for a Democratic victory over a Republican incumbent in 2014," according to the Raleigh News Observer. Rep. Renee Ellmers has been toeing the party line, voting in favor of an incredibly unpopular government shutdown (21 times!) and ten times for spending cuts that adversely affect military and military families, a key constituency in the district. The News Observer notes, "After voting to shutdown the government Ellmers even said she needed to keep getting her Congressional paycheck."

Yikes Ellmers.

Another video on his web site shows Aiken describing his upbringing, time as a special education teacher, rise to stardom on the second season of American Idol, time traveling internationally as a UNICEF ambassador, and working as a George W. Bush appointee in a two-year term on the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities in 2004.

H/T News Observer