Clay Aiken is the wrong person to represent NC's 6th Congressional District
We don't need a celebrity candidate parachuting in to this important, true-Blue district in the heart of North Carolina.
Season 2 American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken has just announced “another bid” for Congress in North Carolina, but it is really important to know just how different this bid is this time. Aiken may be a very nice guy, and I would be happy to “have a beer” with him (would rather have coffee, actually), but he is the wrong person to represent North Carolina’s newly-drawn 6th Congressional district.
It is easy to stereotype North Carolina politics as wacky, because truthfully some of it is. But it’s not all about Madison-Cawthorn-types. Gerrymandered districts make some places Republican-red, and the same process makes other areas Democratic-blue. North Carolinians have had been represented by experienced Democratic Congresspeople like David Price and G. K. Butterfield, and up-and-comers like Deborah Ross. The new 6th Congressional district covers much of David Price’s old 4th district, which includes Chapel Hill (the ink is not dry on these new maps, being upheld by the courts just this week, but I believe this is the latest). Price is retiring this year, having been first elected in 1986. This gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to elect an experienced leader to represent one of the most liberal districts in our purple state.
I am not a fan of celebrity candidates, from Ronald Reagan on down, but when Clay Aiken challenged incumbent GOP Rep Renee Ellmers in a red district in 2014, I wished more power to him. If he could pick off a Republican seat, that would be an improvement. He didn’t come close, losing 41-59%. {Side bar: Madison-Cawthorn-lite Ellmers is back, running in 2022 as a pro-MAGA candidate!}
Crucially, as someone who keeps close tabs on North Carolina politics, I had not seen or heard of Aiken being politically active here in North Carolina since his last run in 2014. I live in the 6th district, and I have not seen Aiken at a community event, Democratic party meeting, protest at the state capitol, or even a political fundraiser. If he were serious, he would be here in the community. Instead it feels like he is parachuting in, with a winning smile and a button-pushing video, but we don’t need Aiken—we’ve got this. We have a qualified slate of Democratic candidates who represent both elected experience and new ideas. They are ready to face off in a genuine primary election, and the winner of the primary is very likely to be the winner come November. Don’t let Clay Aiken be a distraction.
Read this News & Observer Op-Ed by the great Sarah Pequeno for more:
Aiken could use his voice to support Nida Allam, a progressive Muslim woman and Durham County commissioner who is running in NC-06. He could use his voice to support Valerie Foushee, an NC Senator with 24 years of experience as an elected official. He could support Wiley Nickel, another NC Senator. He could support one of the four other candidates in the Democratic Primary come May.
Instead, he chose to run, staking his own claim to some of North Carolina’s precious, limited oxygen.