Which musicians have run for the presidency?
Music and politics are rarely apart. From rock and roll soundtracking teen rebellion to Irish Republican hip-hop trio Kneecap’s challenge to British authority and the censorious muzzling of overseas lobbying efforts, popular music has proven to be modern history’s premier vehicle to inspire revolutionary passions, articulate the national mood, and spur much-needed resistance to the orthodoxies of the day. It also typically gets conservative knickers in a twist, which is a major plus.
Ever since the economic attack on the traditional working-class avenues to art and activism in the 1990s—replacing the dole, housing benefits and art schools with austerity and exorbitant tuition fees was no accident—the peace of mind to spend the time to form a band and rehearse, let alone wield one’s music and art to challenge authority, is fast becoming a post-war luxury in an age of neoliberal quash for anybody lacking monied backgrounds.
However, the public office, typically occupied by the suited ghouls that rock and pop kicked against, has a more storied history connected to music than you’d think. Often indulged in as a satirical critique of the political system or simply for a laugh, 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell unsuccessfully ran for Miami-Dade County’s mayoralty in 2011, and Screaming Lord Sutch founded the UK’s daft Monster Raving Loony Party in 1982 to stand jokey, protest candidates in general elections.
Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra managed to strike a fiercer balance of subversion and political nous, running for San Francisco mayor in 1979 with proposals such as “businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits”, and placing a respectable third place after Diane Feinstein and Quentin Kopp. Biafra would also run for leader of the Green Party along with Stephen Gaskin in 2000, only just beaten by Ralph Nader.
Others have made gallant efforts in elected representation as well. Peter Garrett left his Midnight Oil day job in 2002 to join Australia’s Labour Party, becoming MP for the Sydney Kingsford Smith seat and even serving junior ministerial roles before retiring in 2013. Martha Reeves of ‘Dancing in the Street’ fame, with her former Vandellas group, won a seat on the Detroit City Council from 2005 to 2009, and Sonny Bono became mayor of California’s Palm Springs and then Republican congressman for the state’s 44th district.
So, which musicians have run specifically for the presidency?
Quite a few, albeit most in self-promotional jest. Alice Cooper first launched his presidential bid in 1972 off the back of the single ‘Elected’ as leader of his Wild Party, Eagles’ Joe Walsh made several attempts to run for the top job, and Atlantan rapper Waka Flocka Flame announced his bid on ‘4/20’ on a policy platform of legalising weed and liberating Palestine and Kurdistan.
The only genuine attempts at running for the presidency, or at least using the campaign process to raise serious awareness on issues of the day, were made by a strict handful. Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie ran an independent campaign in 1964, promising to bring troops out of Vietnam, provide housing and healthcare for the poor, as well as rename the White House the Blues House. Rapper turned MAGA-obsessed Nazi-sympathiser Ye, formerly Kanye West, has run two presidential campaigns, surrounding himself with some of the far-right’s most odious figureheads and dragged by a convoluted policy agenda and alleged forged signatures.
In 2012, Senegalese singer Yossou N’Dour sought to compete against the country’s incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade. Rejected last minute due to disputes with his signature collation, N’Dour threw his support behind Alliance for the Republic candidate Macky Sall, who won, rewarding N’Dour with a tidy Minister of Culture and Tourism cabinet position.
