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 The 46-year-old Michigan native drew attention
on Twitter and his Facebook page to a "Kid Rock '18 for U.S.
Senate" website. It featured a photo of the goateed
singer-songwriter wearing a leather jacket, dark glasses and
white fedora, seated in a plush, star-spangled chair beside a
stuffed deer above the tagline: "Are you scared?"
The site also displays images of a T-shirt, baseball cap and
bumper sticker emblazoned with the campaign logo, "Kid Rock for
US Senate" and a box of alternating slogans, including, "In Rock
We Trust," "Party to the People" and "You Never Met a Politician
Quite Like Me."
"I have a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is
real ... The answer is an absolute YES," he said on his verified
Twitter account. "Stay tuned, I will have a major announcement
in the near future."
Reached by email, the musician's spokesman, Kirt Webster,
referred only to Rock's Facebook page, which bore the same
message. His music label, Warner Bros Records, also posted a
website offering sales of Kid Rock for U.S. Senate merchandise.
Born Robert James Ritchie in the Detroit suburb of Romeo,
Michigan, he rose to fame in 1998 as his debut album "Devil
Without a Cause" sold some 14 million copies. He gained
additional celebrity through his courtship of actress Pamela
Anderson and their brief marriage in the 2000s.
While no mention was made in Wednesday's online postings about
Rock's political affiliation or in which state he would run, he
presumably would seek to challenge Michigan's Democratic
incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in
2018.
The Capitol Hill-based newspaper Roll Call reported that Rock's
name surfaced as a possible candidate earlier this month during
a state Republican Party convention in Michigan, which Trump
carried in the 2016 presidential race, though no official
decisions were announced.
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Stabenow seemed to shrug off the prospect of a political challenge
from Rock, saying in a Twitter post: "I know we both share a love of
music. I concede he's better at playing guitar and I'll keep doing
what I do best: fighting for Michigan."
According to Roll Call, Rock endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for
president in 2012 and initially supported Ben Carson for the
Republican nomination in 2016 but switched to Trump when the former
reality-TV star became the party's nominee.
Afterward, Rock released a line of pro-Trump merchandise, including
a T-shirt that read “God Guns & Trump.”
In April, Kid Rock joined fellow rocker and conservative activist
Ted Nugent and former Alaska Governor and onetime Republican vice
presidential nominee Sarah Palin for a White House visit and dinner
with Trump.
Kid Rock would not be the first showbiz figure to make a leap into
politics. Besides Trump, he would follow the likes of singer Sonny
Bono, who served as a U.S. congressman from California during the
1990s; pro-wrestler and actor Jesse "The Body" Ventura, elected
Minnesota governor in 1998; and comedian Al Franken, now serving his
second U.S. Senate term from Minnesota.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by
Lisa Shumaker)
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