How the Heck are We All Gonna Get Along? With Clay, Naturally!

[ldyjocelyn]

Clay also just retweeted what I posted in the previous post.

 

 

[ldyjocelyn]

Outside spending on Foushee dominates Democrats’ 4th District race. But does it count as dark money?

Full text in news section.

[ldyjocelyn]

Another news article.

Dem primary for bright blue congressional district in N.C. shows split between left, establishment

[ldyjocelyn]

 

[ldyjocelyn]

A Broadway World article about Clay hosting the Triangle Rising Stars show.

BWW Review: 2022 Triangle Rising Star Awards at DPAC

The Clay part:

Quote

This year, local singing sensation Clay Aiken returned to host. He was working the crowd all night and getting into the fun of the evening. His enthusiasm for the Triangle Rising Stars program was infectious and it was great to see someone who clearly cares so much about the local theatre community hosting.

 

[ldyjocelyn]

Three pictures from today, via FB.

 

[ldyjocelyn]

Nice article on Clay from a local college newspaper.

Campaigning for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District: Clay Aiken hopes to address gerrymandering, college debt, district growth

Full text in news section.

[ldyjocelyn]

Facebook video from the event yesterday

Not sure where this is located.  Start at about 6:15 to see Clay, and HE SINGS two songs.

[Mik4clay]

5 hours ago, ldyjocelyn said:

Nice article on Clay from a local college newspaper.

Campaigning for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District: Clay Aiken hopes to address gerrymandering, college debt, district growth

Full text in news section.

Wow! What a great article. His ideas are very realistic.

if he doesn’t win, think he’ll come to my state to run??

[ldyjocelyn]

mik, I wish!

From Ruben's Instagram.

[ldyjocelyn]

ABC 11 interview, with good policy statements from Clay.  There's video with all the candidates as well.

From one stage to another, Clay Aiken hoping to make name for self in a new arena

[ldyjocelyn]

Today’s the day! Go Clay Go!

[Mik4clay]

🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈

Im suddenly very nervous 😳

[ldyjocelyn]

This tweeter is a full-on Nida Allam supporter (and has trash talked Clay in previous tweets).  Today there's this:

That actually makes me pretty happy.

[beanerknits]

Idyjocelyn, just saw this also, and you beat me to posting it here!!

Anyway, i caught myself smiling when I read it, because I recall Clay mentioning (when he mentioned, during heartbeat, that he will be a realist and a pragmatist about it.  Gee, I'll stress out so much  less if I can adopt that attitude.

 

[jmh123]

My niece just sent this - it's from her polling place in Creedmoor, NC. 

 

 

[ldyjocelyn]

https://er.ncsbe.gov/?election_dt=05/17/2022&county_id=0&office=FED&contest=2099

Election results here.

Right now Foushee is almost at 50%.  Damn

[jmh123]

FWIW, those are all early voting totals. Nonetheless, not too promising.

[jmh123]

Cheri Beasley has won the Democratic primary for Senator by a huge margin. She has the best chance to beat the Republican competition, who will surely be a hard right person. 

 

ETA, yup, Ted Budd, endorsed by Trump, will be her challenger. Former Governor McCrory, who used to run Duke Energy and brought us coal dust pollution, was considered to be "too liberal."

[ldyjocelyn]

Well at least it looks as if Madison Cawthorne is toast.  Thank God.

[Mik4clay]

3 minutes ago, ldyjocelyn said:

Well at least it looks as if Madison Cawthorne is toast.  Thank God.

Praise Jesus.

Im watching my man Steve Kornacki on msnbc ❤️

I’m depressed about what we are seeing for Clay 😢 But lets just hope Oz

stays in the lag.. I don’t think my heart could take a win for that SOB 🙄

[ldyjocelyn]

Not to rub it in, but it needs to be "official" here. From CNN (you have to scroll to get to the article, so I'm copying it here).

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/primary-election-results-pennsylvania-north-carolina-2022/index.html

 

Quote

 

Ex-American Idol star Clay Aiken loses Democratic primary in North Carolina's 4th Congressional District

From CNN's Rachel Janfaza

 

Clay Aiken speaks during Politicon in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2019. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Politicon)

 

Clay Aiken, widely known for his stint on "American Idol," has lost the Democratic primary race in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Aiken will finish behind state Sen. Valerie Foushee, the projected nominee, as well as Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. David Price. 

While running, the former reality television star highlighted issues like income equality, access to health care and climate change while promising to focus on infrastructure and inflation if elected.

Millions of dollars were spent in the race and Foushee, for her part, benefited from spending by Protect Our Future, the super PAC funded by cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, and the United Democracy Project. 

Aiken previously ran to represent North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District in 2014. He lost to Republican incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers.

 

 

 

[ldyjocelyn]

Clay, I am very proud of you.  You continue to shine the light on dark things, like money in politics.  You ran a really good campaign, and my wish is a) you take a well deserved vacation; and b) you do what makes you happy going forward.

[ldyjocelyn]

From washgirl at CV, who was in Raleigh last night (used with permission)

[ldyjocelyn]

And a report from Sweet Carolina Girl, who was also in Raleigh last night:

Quote

Good morning, everyone. I thought I should give a report about the Election Night party.

The doors opened at 7, and there were some of the campaign workers present. The ones we interacted with the most were Mark, who is college student, and a high school girl who looked and acted much more mature than her age.

They brought in lots of pizza, and we did our best to wipe it out. Haha. There was a concession stand where we could buy drinks, and many did. I was happy to see my favorite Diet Coke was available. 🙂

There were several tvs set up, and we checked on the returns as they came in both there and on our phones.

There was a small group of fans there - about 15. We all recognized each other from previous events. We stood inside and sometimes sat outside waiting for what might happen. The weather was lovely, and we all waited patiently or impatiently, but we werent going anywhere.

There was a press area and a podium set up. There was a reporter and a cameraman there for a while.

After the race was called, we all stayed - well, the press people left - and Clay came in at 8:40. Although he tried valiantly to stop us, we all clapped and cheered mightily for him. He greeted each of us with a hug and gathered us around him. He said, and I quote, This is the speech, folks. He told us he had never been a sore loser and wasnt one now. He said he was ok and not to worry. He ran his fingers through his unruly, luxurious hair - which had a lot of beautiful silver in it - and said the first thing he was doing was - quote - taking care of it - unquote - including dying it some color, most likely green. He said he would wear a wig for Drowsy, so he didnt have to worry about that.

He talked about various political races and others who were running, and he was both candid and delightful. He talked with us like we were old friends, which I guess we kind of are.

We are all sorry about the results, but time goes on, and hes still our guy.

PS - I am so sorry about the lack of quotation marks around Clays words and the missing apostrophes. Im doing this on my phone, and dagnabbit, it wont let me include them.