For those hoping for a dark horse presidential candidate to cut through the empty cotillion of electoral politics and actually address contemporary social realities in an earnest and transformative way: sorry, but Deez Nuts is not your candidate.
Legally, he cannot be anybody’s candidate. The Independent presidential candidate, who trended on social media and polled at between 7 and 9 percent in three states, is actually a teenager from rural Iowa. 15-year-old Brady Olson, who spoke to The Daily Beast yesterday, said he was inspired by the Democratic/"Democat-ic" candidacy of Kentucky cat Limberbutt McCubbins; Olson even proclaimed that he’s looking to join forces with McCubbins:
“The next step is to get some party nominations, like the Minnesota Independence Party or the Modern Whig Party,” Olson says. “It would also be great to find a VP, preferably McCubbins because the Nuts/McCubbins ticket sounds amazing.”
Olson was able to file the required Form 2 to become president without being detected as a non-existent candidate (although, The Daily Beast states, there are numerous legal Deez Nutses and Deez Nutzes throughout the country). His online virality was furthered by his request to Public Polling Policy:
“It started because somebody emailed us under the name Deez Nuts,” says Jim Williams, an issue polling specialist a Public Policy Polling. “He said, ‘I’m Deez Nuts. I’m running. Here’s my filing statement. Would you poll me?’”
Williams thought “this is something Public Policy Polling would do,” so he squared Nuts off against Trump and Clinton in Minnesota a few weeks ago. He polled at 7 percent.
“I thought, ‘Let’s put this out. This’ll be funny,’” he says, and it was met with “mild interest.”
But when his numbers rose after two more polls—8 percent in Iowa, then 9 percent in North Carolina—Nuts took off. On Wednesday, Deez Nuts was trending worldwide on Twitter.
The whole piece is worth a read, particularly for its breakdown of how, bureaucratically, this whole thing could’ve happened. Olson, for his part, does not weigh in on whether he was influenced by the Dr. Dre song, or what he thinks about cultural appropriation.
(H/t The Daily Beast)