{"id":1206118,"date":"2022-01-10T21:04:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T02:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1206118"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:05:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T02:05:01","slug":"american-idol-alum-clay-aiken-running-for-congress-again-in-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/american-idol-alum-clay-aiken-running-for-congress-again-in-north-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;American Idol&#039; Alum Clay Aiken Running for Congress Again in North Carolina"},"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\">24<\/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%2Famerican-idol-alum-clay-aiken-running-for-congress-again-in-north-carolina%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=1206118&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--><p class=\"subheading\">Former <em>American Idol<\/em> contestant Clay Aiken is once again running for Congress, throwing his hat in the ring as a Democrat for North Carolina\u2019s proposed 6th district, which is expected to be heavily left-leaning.<\/p>\n<p>Clay Aiken, who is aiming to succeed retiring&nbsp;Rep. David Price (D-NC), announced his bid Monday in a video posted to his social media accounts. In the video, he pledged to promote progressive values, including addressing \u201csystemic racism,\u201d ending \u201cgun violence,\u201d and tackling \u201cclimate change.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>He also attacked Republican members of Congress, smearing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) as a \u201cwhite nationalist.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Can you believe it&#8217;s been almost 20 years since I first got to share my voice with you? That&#8217;s a long time. A LOT has changed!<\/p>\n<p>We need powerful voices more than ever, so I&#8217;m 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>Aiken, who is openly gay, played down his celebrity persona and pitched himself as an ordinary citizen.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThese days, my life looks a lot more like yours than Justin Bieber\u2019s,\u201d he said. \u201cBut one thing that has never changed is how much I love my home state.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19435378\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/AP441909059050.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19435378\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/AP441909059050.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1427\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>(AP Photo\/Gerry Broome)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Aiken said progressives have lost ground in North Carolina in recent years, citing the \u201cvoter suppression\u201d and the \u201cbigoted\u201d transgender bathroom laws. In the video, he also cited prominent House GOP lawmakers Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Democrats we have got to get better about speaking up and using our voices, \u2019cause those folks ain\u2019t quieting down any time soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He described progressive Democrats as \u201clevel-headed, open-minded, and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aiken first ran for Congress in 2014 but was defeated in the general election by Republican Renee Ellmers. His unsuccessful run spawned a reality docu-series that prompted some of his donors to reportedly say they felt <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2014\/biz\/news\/some-clay-aiken-donors-feel-duped-after-announcement-of-esquire-docu-series-1201350270\/\">duped<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow David Ng on Twitter&nbsp;<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HeyItsDavidNg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@HeyItsDavidNg<\/a>. Have a tip? Contact me at&nbsp;<a class=\"c-link x5l\" href=\"mailto:dng@breitbart.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">dng@breitbart.com<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken is once again running for Congress, throwing his hat in the ring as a Democrat for North Carolina\u2019s proposed 6th district, which is expected &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"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-1206118","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\/1206118","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1206118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206118\/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=1206118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1206118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1206118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}