Deez Nuts endorses Sanders in Dem primary
A joke presidential candidate with national buzz is backing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
Independent presidential candidate Deez Nuts announced he is supporting Sanders’s bid for the Democratic nomination.
{mosads}“Just gonna throw this one out there,” Deez Nuts said on his campaign’s Facebook page. “This is not for the general election. My endorsement for the Democratic nomination goes to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.”
He added in another post moments later that he endorses Ohio Gov. John Kasich for the Republican nomination.
Reports emerged Wednesday that Deez Nuts is actually Brady Olson, a 15-year-old from Iowa who registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for a White House run.
A surprising poll taken earlier this week found that in a race with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, Deez Nuts garnered 9 percent support in North Carolina.
He expanded Saturday that he is supporting Sanders “because he almost completely agrees with me on social issues and even financial issues,” according to In These Times.
“Not really,” he added when questioned on whether his endorsement could tilt the nominating process in Sanders’s favor.
“I endorse myself,” he quipped when asked whom he is picking for the general election.
Google Trends posted graphs on Friday showing that interest in Deez Nuts had eclipsed the front-runners for both political party nominations after the survey’s release.
Nuts gained more Internet attention than both Clinton and Trump heading into Friday evening.
He also surpassed Sanders in online popularity between Wednesday and Friday.
Deez Nuts filed paperwork with the FEC in July. Anyone can file a statement of candidacy, and the information requested on the forms is not checked against public records.
Candidates must typically complete documents with their legal names and legitimate contact information after they raise $5,000.
“The next step is to get some party nominations, like the Minnesota Independence Party or the Modern Whig Party,” Deez Nuts said Wednesday, according to The Daily Beast.
It added that Deez Nuts’s campaign is based out of Wallingford, Iowa, a town with 197 people, including Olson and his parents.
Since Olson is below the minimum age to become president, his campaign cannot end in victory no matter how many votes Deez Nuts receives.
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