Can Kid Rock Beat Debbie Stabenow in Michigan?
Trump showed that Michigan isn’t a safe haven for Democrats.
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Social media erupted on Sunday when a poll showed musician Robert Ritchie, aka Kid Rock, up by four points over incumbent Democratic Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow. Delphi Analytics, whose website just launched this month, released the findings:
Of respondents who stated a preference between Debbie Stabenow and Robert Ritchie, 54% stated they would vote for Ritchie while 46% said they would vote for Debbie Stabenow. These results could indicate that Ritchie is a popular figure in Michigan, Debbie Stabenow is unpopular, or some combination of concurrent trends. The relatively large, 44%, number of undecided respondents may be due to the early stages of the campaign.
Kid Rock took the internet by storm when he tweeted out www.kidrockforsenate.com with links to merchandise. He even confirmed the move in other tweets:
I have had a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real… https://t.co/RRVgISDFeq The answer is an absolute YES. pic.twitter.com/uYCUg6mjW1
— Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 12, 2017
https://t.co/RRVgISDFeq pic.twitter.com/VaezmV1Rri
— Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 18, 2017
https://t.co/RRVgISDFeq pic.twitter.com/zPDlqeHzJl
— Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 17, 2017
He has even started to take jabs at Stabenow by showing everyone he is a regular guy:
Dinner time at my house. What do you think Schumer is spoon-feeding Stabenow tonight? pic.twitter.com/gomKgqBV2l
— Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 21, 2017
People have laughed him off, but Politico warned on Sunday that it’d be a huge mistake not to take Kid Rock seriously. As I said, Delphi Analytics just launched its website this month, but the findings go along the lines with this article.
Kid Rock hasn’t had much musical success lately and the announcement coincides with new music he’s released. Politico reminds its readers “that theory doesn’t appear consistent with the man himself.” The article continued:
Ritchie, who already boasts a huge and devoted following, has sold tens of millions of albums and amassed what he calls “fuck you money”—enough of it, in fact, that he has given seven-figure sums to charity and capped ticket prices to his concerts at $20 to make them accessible to working-class fans. Meanwhile, he’s earned a reputation in his native southeast Michigan as someone who is earnest when it comes to civic involvement, helping local businesses and headlining major philanthropic events. When Mitt Romney asked for his endorsement ahead of the pivotal Michigan primary in 2012, Ritchie invited him to his Metro Detroit home and peppered him with a list of policy questions, sleeping on the decision before informing Romney the next day he would support him. The two forged an unexpected bond: Romney adopted the patriotic rock anthem “Born Free” as his official campaign song, and Ritchie later praised the former Massachusetts governor as “the most decent motherfucker I’ve ever met in my life.”
Politico notes that Stabenow easily defeated the last two GOP nominees who all used a traditional campaign. Democratic strategist Joshua Pugh admitted that a Kid Rock campaign “would scramble the playbook,” but he’s not concerned that Stabenow would lose. Other strategists said that since Kid Rock is touring until November, he wouldn’t have time to run a proper campaign.
But does he have to?
Kid Rock doesn’t need to run a standard campaign; he has nearly universal name-identification that will earn him free media to make up for any lack of traditional ground game. (Sound familiar?) If he runs, some Democrats fear, not only could Ritchie chip away at Stabenow’s impressive coalition of rural, non-college-educated independents and urban, union-friendly Democrats; he alone might prove capable of mobilizing Republicans who otherwise don’t turn out to vote in midterm elections.
“The fact that he’s non-traditional is appealing to a lot of people. Obviously it scares others who want someone more predictable,” says Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan GOP. “But if you’re going to beat an entrenched candidate like Debbie Stabenow in a purple state, you need to do something different.”
“He’s well-liked in Michigan. He’s a hometown darling. He’s got deep connections to Detroit. He’s done a lot throughout the state,” Anuzis adds. “Anybody who’s writing him off is making a mistake.”
Look at Donald Trump. He visited the state and actually spoke with residents while failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton didn’t give the state a thought. It’d be easier for Kid Rock to win than it was for Trump. Not just because he’s from there, but because of his actions and friendliness to those in his area:
Ritchie gives back to the country: Performances for the troops overseas, on top of his donations to numerous military charities and home-building efforts for a wounded veteran, earned him the “Patriot Award” from Operation Troop Aid in 2014. He is similarly generous in the community—his foundation has given money to, among other groups, a local youth theater, a nature conservancy and the Detroit Historical Museum (where an exhibit is named in his honor). And unlike other beloved local figures—most especially Eminem—he’s highly accessible. Everyone seems to know somebody who met him at a bar or ran into him on the lake or got invited back to his house to hang out. (A Rolling Stone piece from 2015 detailed how Ritchie, while at his property in Alabama, invites over small-town neighbors he meets under various circumstances; he even took three of them to New York City as his “security entourage” so they could see the Big Apple for the first time.) On a random evening in Michigan, locals know you can find Ritchie chatting up guests at unremarkable watering holes in Mt. Clemens or St. Clair Shores, taking in a Tigers game at Comerica Park or even golfing alongside wealthy white-collar executives at Metro Detroit’s most selective country clubs.
In a region long divided along lines of race and class, Ritchie’s equally at home among black Detroiters and the suburban and exurban whites of the surrounding counties. Doubtless this is informed by his own family: Ritchie has a college-aged biracial son, whom he raised as a single father after winning a custody battle in court. Yet in song, Ritchie has also described himself as “a lowlife” who thinks “racist jokes are funny” and questioned in “Amen,” a track on his 2007 album, “How can we seek salvation when our nation’s race relations got me feeling guilty of being white?”
Besides it’s not new for celebrities to mingle into politics and actually win. President Ronald Reagan anyone? Arnold Schwarzenegger. Al Franken. Donald Trump, who easily defeated Hillary Clinton. Nothing in politics from now on should surprise us nor should we laugh off any celebrity that wants to enter politics.
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Comments
I wonder how many musicians on the left have “capped” their ticket prices like this geezer?
Seems to me that alone is reason enough he should be in the senate. Heck Id even go so far as to say that should he get in to the Senate that he will easily be one of the few there who actually gives a damn about his constituents.
Mailman
It’s yet another protest vote in a Democrat state where people are ready to vote for anyone who annoys the status quo. The more annoying the better. Think Governor Jesse Ventura who was a mediocre governor at best but at least rattled the cages in “both” Democratic parties.
It’s only a matter of time before it happens in CA too. Hating the Republicans as their only message isn’t working. Voters are going deaf to the excuses. Presented with more of the same (all communists ballots in CA e.g.), we stop listening and start doing the opposite of what the “experts” are predicting that we will do. Michigan has been doing much worse than whatever Kid Rock would bring so rattle those cages!
Except that in Michigan, ours is Kid Rock, who has been a vocal libertarian/conservative his entire career, disdaining politics, and gvt intrusion into our personal lives.
In California, yours is Duane “the Rock” who spouts dem talking points like a good apparatchik.
It’s not just about being a popular name, or a local name. Outside of Detroit and Ann Arbor, (ok, and Flint) I think more folks have woken to how bad liberal rule has been.
It also wouldn’t hurt to bring a little more libertarian tilt to the party.
Don’t forget his promotion of the DumbFuckistan T-Shirt!
Look it up, it will make you smile!
IF Kid Rock runs, he’ll win. He has the authenticity of: “I wasn’t born rich, but I’m from “here” and made myself. I do not apologize for my wealth or hide it. In fact, I give back regularly. I choose to live here and am as tired as you are of the way things are going. Let’s shake things up and get the Government off your back.”
He’ll win. And he has all the boxes checked to build on what the President ran on and won. Coattails AND self made man. Will owe nothing to the GOPe if he wins.
Trouble is he was born rich. But I think he can slough that off.
Definitely a man of the people. So is Trump. Billionaire or not, he can relate to the folks in a crowd … and they can relate to him.
Gotta love that campaign slogan Kid Rock tweeted.
https://twitter.com/KidRock/status/886995408416886785/photo/1
I predict Kid Rock Wins!
Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump 6h6 hours ago
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After 1 year of investigation with Zero evidence being found, Chuck Schumer just stated that “Democrats should blame ourselves,not Russia.”
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump 6h6 hours ago
Drain the Swamp should be changed to Drain the Sewer – it’s actually much worse than anyone ever thought, and it begins with the Fake News!
Don’t take Kid Rock for granite.
“Don’t take Kid Rock for granite.”
He has fists of DOLOMITE!
“Kid Rock Rocks the Vote!”
Will the GOPe try to destroy him as they did (and are still doing) to Trump?
They will try and, like with Trump, they will fail.
That and the more you get in like him will make things even harder for the GOPe!
Kid Rock’s demonstrated his generosity with his own money.
Stabenow, following the Democrat model, demonstrates (or pretends) her generosity to you using your own money (that had been been taken from you by force in the first place).
“Democrats, so generous, they’re willing to give others the shirt off your back.”
Initially I’m hesitant because its kid rock and the inevitable stories of scandalous behavior that bound to immerge. But then I remember, this is Kid Rock, and his life has been pretty much an open book.
And the truly funny thing is… Politico thinks these two excerpts from his music are going to hurt Richie’s campaign for office. Even after all this time, they truly do not understand the forces at work.
Richie understands that a good portion of the electorate does not appreciate being told what to think upon penalty of being labeled racist. I suspect he can tap into the resentment of most people watching smug millennials with pastel hair and no life experience explain how we’re all ignorant racists. Whether or not that can get him into office, who knows?
got family in Michigan.. they have joined the Rock campaign and are now campaigning!
Dan, who has Downs Syndrome asked Kid Rock to come to his 30th birthday party.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUPaPnz-sc0
Kid Rock and Pulte team up to give a veteran a house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhS0fgqWGM0
Stabacow has the stupid vote which unfortunately is most of Michigan it seems.
He beats mcccain and al franken. He has spirit and attitude and is pro american. Rock-Neugent in 2024!
He makes mconnell look like a corpse, and ryan like a wanna be. He stands at trumps knee, but respectfully.
He will have fun hot wife.
If he gives it it all, he will be ok and light years of most rinos we need to get rid of.
Why not. Hes got balls and street smarts and is conservative.
I’m a Michigan native, and I plan on voting for him.