Appearing on the radio with Howard Stern, Robert Ritchie, AKA Kid Rock, revealed that he will not run for the Senate in Michigan, dashing the hopes of those who saw him as a legitimate contender to replace Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow.
Kid Rock stated, “F— no I’m not running for Senate, are you f—ing kidding me? Who couldn’t figure that out?”
It isn’t as though Kid Rock’s prospective candidacy had not been touted by some Republicans already; in early August, the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, expressed support for a Kid Rock candidacy. Steven Law, the group’s president, said on C-SPAN, “We’d be actually very interested in his candidacy. I certainly wouldn’t count him out.” He added, “The truth of the matter is that he’s done a lot in his home state philanthropically, he’s a pretty smart guy, he thinks about policy and he’s a shrewd businessman. If you’re watching, Kid, we hope you run.”
Kid Rock had stoked the fires for his possible candidacy by linking kidrockforsenate.com to his official Twitter account as well as tweeting campaign-related images: political stances, lawn signs and clothes.
But Kid Rock may have seen the writing on the wall. First he tweeted out a poll in July showing him ahead of Stabenow, but then a July 25-27 poll by RealClearPolitics found him trailing Stabenow by only eight points, and by mid-September a Market Resource Group poll found him trailing Stabenow by eighteen points. Stabenow received 52% of the vote; Kid Rock 34%.