Thread: Only one candidate has been able to match Donald Trump’s online interest

Only one candidate has been able to match Donald Trump’s online interest: Deez Nuts

By Philip Bump August 21 at 11:57 AM

On July 26, a new candidate entered the presidential race as an independent: Deez Nuts, of Iowa.



When he filed his paperwork, there was a brief flurry of interest in the idea of someone named Deez Nuts running for president. He's not really named "Deez Nuts," of course; he's a 15-year-old kid who is not eligible to be president under any name. But imagine seeing that ballot!

Nuts-amania went into overdrive this week with a poll on Wednesday from Public Policy Polling that showed Nuts getting 9 percent support in North Carolina -- near the numbers he got in Minnesota and Iowa.

The Internet, as the Internet does, went bananas.

News organizations picked up the story; at one point, apparently, Nuts' name was trending worldwide on Twitter.

But the stunning thing is that Nuts managed to do something that Republican candidates for president have been trying and failing to do for weeks: He got more attention than Donald Trump.

As you might think, given that it was trending worldwide, "Deez Nuts" was mentioned about as much on Twitter as Trump on Thursday. He was mentioned more than "Clinton" on August 19 -- despite the fact that August 19 is Bill Clinton's birthday.



And Nuts actually got as much interest on Google as Trump for hour after hour since his polling success.

That sort of steady interest in a non-Trump hasn't really been matched, except the period during and after the first Republican debates.



Deez Nuts will not be able to maintain this level of interest. And part of his success in generating interest is linked to a relatively quiet week from Trump: Our appetites for non-stop 2016 insanity having been whetted, we will seize upon any crazy nonsense for a fix.

Meanwhile, the National Journal reports that a slew of other fake/novelty candidates have recently entered the race. Will they attract the support of one-in-ten North Carolinians? Will they captivate a nation?

At this point, when Donald Trump and Deez Nuts are neck-and-neck for America's attention, you might as well assume they will.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...est-deez-nuts/

http://www.alipac.us/f9/%91deez-nuts...nt-n-c-322313/

HOME / CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE PORTAL / CANDIDATE AND COMMITTEE VIEWER / COMMITTEE DETAILS / HTML VIEWER

FEC FORM 2

STATEMENT OF CANDIDACY

FILING FEC-1018025

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1. Deez Nuts

2248 450th Avenue
Wallingford, IA 51365
2. Identification Number: P60009198

3. Party: Independent

4. Office Sought: President

5-6. State & District of Candidate: ____ - 0

---

DESIGNATION OF PRINCIPAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE

7. I hereby designate the following named political committee as my Principal Campaign Committee for the 2016 election(s).

Deez Nuts for President 2016


2248 450th Avenue
Wallingford, IA 51365

---

DESIGNATION OF OTHER AUTHORIZED COMMITTEES

8. I hereby designate the following named committee, which is NOT my principal campaign committee, to receive and expend funds on behalf of my candidacy.

---

DECLARATION OF INTENT TO EXPEND PERSONAL FUNDS (House or Senate Only)

9. I intend to expend personal funds exceeding the threshold amount (see 11 C.F.R. 400.9) by

9A. 0.00 for the primary election, and
9B. 0.00 for the general election

Signed as: Deez Nuts
Signed by the candidate on: 07/26/2015

Filed: 07/26/2015

(End FEC FORM 2)


Generated Fri Aug 21 15:49:58 2015

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Demo-cat candidate:

For Limberbutt McCubbins, 'The Time Is Meow' To Run For President

JULY 08, 201511:09 AM ET
from LPM

ASHLEY LOPEZ


Candidate Limberbutt McCubbins is not the first non-human to become a presidential candidate. Others include a pig named Pigasus the Immortal in 1968 and Molly the Dog in 2008.

Courtesy Emilee McCubbins

Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore is the latest candidate to enter the 2016 presidential race — he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch Tuesday that he plans to make a formal announcement in August.

That could bring the number of major presidential candidates to a whopping 22 by the end of the summer. But, as we've reported, there are hundredsof other candidates who have filled out the Federal Election Commission's one-page "Statement of Candidacy" form. Some are serious, some do it as a joke and others, it turns out, are not even human.

Member station WFPL brings us this story of a feline contender:

The first thing people noticed was the name.

A Louisville resident named Limberbutt McCubbins had apparently filed to run for president, gaining attention in recent months from a campaign watchdog and, most recently, The Rachel Maddow Show.

It's not entirely clear whether everyone realized that Limberbutt McCubbins is a cat.

In an interview, Isaac Weiss, 17, a rising senior at duPont Manual High School in Louisville, said he thought it would be funny to enlist his friend's cat to run for president. The presidential candidate belongs to 18-year-old Emilee McCubbins, who is also a rising senior at Manual.

So Weiss logged on to the Federal Election Commission's website this spring and created "The Committee for the Installation of Limberbutt."

According to Federal Election Commission filings, Limberbutt is a Democrat. Or as Weiss puts it, a "demo-cat."

Weiss and Emilee McCubbins say they have already gotten letters about Limberbutt's candidacy—some going as far as to ask for proof of the cat's citizenship. Other letters are seeking information about possible volunteer opportunities to help get McCubbins in the White House.

"I got a letter in the mail from a lawyer wanting to represent him," McCubbins said. "I've gotten numerous emails."

Weiss added: "It does not appear that they know that he is indeed a cat."

Candidate McCubbins is not the first non-human to become a presidential candidate. Others include a pig named Pigasus the Immortal in 1968 and Molly the Dog in 2008.

Anyone can start a committee to explore running for president, but actually getting on the ballot requires fundraising, an FEC spokesman said. It doesn't break FEC rules, per se, for a committee to be launched for a cat, the spokesman added.

Weiss said he and his friends started this process — which already includes a Facebook page ("The time is meow, watch out Hillary!" declares one post) and campaign swag — mostly as a joke.

"We often joked around that Limberbutt would make a great president," Weiss said of the 5-year-old cat.

He said what stood out to him was that it was even possible to register a cat with the FEC.

"Anyone can easily run for president, which is why if you go to the FEC website you'll see over 200 people listed—including Limberbutt," Weiss said.

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpo...-for-president

So where does Deez Nuts stand on the issues? He supports deportation of undocumented immigrants without a path to citizenship,

How a 15-Year-Old Iowa Farm Boy Is Pranking the Presidential Race

@ http://www.alipac.us/f9/%91deez-nuts...nt-n-c-322313/

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

So where does Deez Nuts stand on the issues? He supports deportation of undocumented immigrants without a path to citizenship,

How a 15-Year-Old Iowa Farm Boy Is Pranking the Presidential Race

@ http://www.alipac.us/f9/%91deez-nuts...nt-n-c-322313/

So when he's disqualified his 9% will probably go to Donald J Trump.