Clay Aiken officially enters N.C. congressional race, vows to fix Washington D.C.'s problems

Clay Aiken officially enters N.C. congressional race, vows to fix Washington D.C.&#039;s problems

(Image credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Former American Idol runner-up and supporter of community theater Clay Aiken declared he's officially running for Congress in North Carolina. Apparently he believes he's the panacea for the infighting and political gridlock gripping Washington.

Aiken, 35 announced he was running for a seat in the state's 2nd Congressional District (currently represented by Republican Renee Ellmers) three weeks ago, but finally filed his candidacy papers today. He will run as a Democrat and will face his first battle in this May's primary.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox