https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK4qtHstfd0
Back in 2014, Clay Aiken ran for US Congress in North Carolina. The Runner-Up documents his run starting tonight at 10p on Esquire.
The series starts off days before the primary election and he already has a long road ahead of him. He has a group of people supporting him, but it is not obvious if they fully support the newcomer as they should.
Even though they don’t have a lot of faith in him, he will try to get the constituents to do just that. He will do anything he can to get them to vote for him. He will knock on doors, put up signs, attend rallies, visit nursing homes and go to the polling places the day of the election. Will it be enough?
He has tough competition. He is running against Keith Crisco who has been part of the North Carolina political scene for decades. Although Clay wants to run a clean race, things get nasty fast. Behind the scenes, Clay has nothing nice to say about his opponent. Which is understandable by how the race is going between them.
Finally, it is Election Day and it is a very close race between the two of them. By the end of the night, it looks like Clay has barely won, but Crisco can call for a recount. Then something happens that changes the race. It will leave the American Idol runner-up speechless. You don’t want to miss his sincere reaction to the surprising sad news.
You also don’t want to miss the reason that Clay tells us why he decided to run for Congress in the first place. He cries as he explains his reasoning and you will tear up with him.
Tonight is just the first part of Clay’s run for Congress, each week will focus on the different stages of his campaign until that tense day in November when the candidate find out if he is going to Washington.
I have been a fan of Aiken’s since American Idol, so of course I found this show captivating. But it isn’t only my admiration for him that will get me tuning in, I found it really interesting what goes on behind the scene in a local political race. If you are into politics, then this a show you are going to vote for every week. If you are into American Idol, then you will do. If you are fan of neither, I still think you will vote for The Runner-Up.
