{"id":1204715,"date":"2022-01-10T13:05:18","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T18:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1204715"},"modified":"2022-01-10T13:05:43","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T18:05:43","slug":"former-american-idol-star-clay-aiken-announces-second-bid-for-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-american-idol-star-clay-aiken-announces-second-bid-for-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Former \u2018American Idol\u2019 Star Clay Aiken Announces Second Bid For Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-american-idol-star-clay-aiken-announces-second-bid-for-congress%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1204715&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<aside id=\"right1forarticles\">\n<\/aside>\n<div id=\"ob-read-more-selector\">\n<p>Former \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d runner-up Clay Aiken will run for Congress in North Carolina\u2019s Sixth District, he announced Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Aiken, who appeared on the second season of the hit show, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2014\/11\/04\/the-triple-frown-clay-aiken-loses-yet-again\/\">ran<\/a> in 2014 against Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers in the state\u2019s Second District, <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Clay_Aiken\">losing<\/a> by 17 points. The new Sixth District, currently represented by <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/18\/david-price-democrat-north-carolina-retires\/\">retiring<\/a> Democrat David Price, gives Democrats a 42-point advantage, <a href=\"https:\/\/projects.fivethirtyeight.com\/redistricting-2022-maps\/north-carolina\/\">according<\/a> to FiveThirtyEight. North Carolina\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/11\/04\/north-carolina-adopts-new-congressional-map-that-bolsters-republicans\/\">new<\/a> congressional districts are currently the subject of a lawsuit filed by two left-wing groups that <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/nc\/charlotte\/politics\/2022\/01\/06\/5-things-to-know-about-the-n-c--redistricting-trial-and-what-it-could-mean\">argue<\/a> the map is an example of partisan and racial gerrymandering. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/11\/18\/gk-butterfield-blames-gerrymandering-retirement-north-carolina\/\">(RELATED: \u2018It\u2019s Racially Gerrymandered\u2019: Long-Time Democrat Blames New District Map For Retirement)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In his announcement video, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2014\/05\/21\/clay-aiken-deleted-tweet-about-punching-ann-coulter\/\">Aiken<\/a> asserted that North Carolina was formerly \u201cthe progressive beacon in the South,\u201d but that \u201ctoday it seems like the loudest voices in North Carolina politics are white nationalists\u201d and \u201chomophobes,\u201d while pointing to Rep. Madison Cawthorn and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, both Republicans.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Can you believe it\u2019s been almost 20 years since I first got to share my voice with you? That\u2019s a long time. A LOT has changed!<\/p>\n<p>We need powerful voices more than ever, so I\u2019m running for Congress.<\/p>\n<p>And my voice is even stronger now! \ud83d\ude09 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/JoinTheChorus?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#JoinTheChorus<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aQIm8a2xuZ\">https:\/\/t.co\/aQIm8a2xuZ<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xBtN2CYF30\">pic.twitter.com\/xBtN2CYF30<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/clayaiken\/status\/1480563216405127170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAs Democrats, we have got to get better about speaking up and using our voices,\u201d Aiken added. \u201cBecause those folks ain\u2019t quieting down any time soon. That\u2019s why I\u2019m running for Congress, here in this community that raised me and where I first discovered my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aiken appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2012, where he finished second to Arsenio Hall. Early in President Donald Trump\u2019s tenure, he pushed back against charges of racism toward the former president. However, Aiken later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/music-news\/clay-aiken-apologizes-defending-racist-donald-trump-7905112\/\">called<\/a> himself a \u201cdumbass\u201d for defending Trump.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d runner-up Clay Aiken will run for Congress in North Carolina\u2019s Sixth District, he announced Monday.Aiken, who appeared on the second season of the hit show, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}