'Kid Rock Ain’t Running For Squat,’ Ted Nugent Says

Kid Rock, who has been talking around, but not quite about, his possible candidacy for a Michigan U.S. Senate seat in the 2018 midterm elections, “ain’t running for squat,” his longtime friend, fellow Metro Detroit-born musician Ted Nugent, said in a recent television interview.

Nugent, who has said he might also run for the Michigan Senate seat currently held by Lansing Democrat Debbie Stabenow, says the whole idea of Kid Rock — legally Robert Ritchie, who lives in Clarkston, Michigan — started as a joke and that the Michigan Republican Party and media “continue to milk this nonsense.”

A Michigan Republican convention delegate started the chatter about drafting Kid Rock to run against Stabenow last winter. The “All Summer Long” singer has become more politically active in the past two election cycles, publicly backing President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, and click here to find your local Michigan Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

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Ritchie has never said for sure he plans to run for office, though he’s been playing along in what may be the equivalent of giving the middle finger to an establishment that seems to be losing its collective mind over media stories on the prospect of the provocative lyricist setting policy on Capitol Hill.

He launched a Kid Rock for Senate website that either is or isn’t a campaign website and continues to mercilessly tease the media and public about whether he’s serious. Most recently, Ritchie said that while continuing to explore a Senate run, he was shifting his focus to n To voter registration efforts through a non-profit organization.

Nugent told Newsmax TV that Kid Rock isn’t running for Senate, no question about it.

“My friend Bob Ritchie never thought, never hinted, never mentioned, never gave any consideration whatsoever to running for public office,” Nugent said. “Some goofball in the Michigan GOP just pulled it out of their ass and said, ‘What about Kid Rock?’ ...

“That the GOP and the media continue to milk this nonsense is one of the most embarrassing chapters for the Republican Party. Somebody write this down: Kid Rock ain’t running for squat.

• See Also: Kid Rock Kills A Mountain Lion And Ted Nugent Cackles With Joy

“They made it up and they’re running with it, but they should probably stop and focus their resources on someone who can beat the Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi-wannabe Debbie Stabenow,” Nugent said. “The Republican Party better get somebody in there who can be a status-quo crusher like Donald Trump.”

Several Republicans have already said they’re running for the right to challenge Stabenow, 67, who has served in the Senate since 2001. They include Lena Epstein, a Bloomfield Hills businesswoman and co-chair of Trump’s Michigan campaign; former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bob Young Jr., of Laingsburg; and military veteran and political newcomer John James, of Farmington Hills.

Ritchie’s possible political aspirations came up when Newsmax’s J.D. Hayworth asked if Nugent planned to run for Senate. Nugent didn’t say, but he did talk about the night in April when he and Ritchie tagged along with Sarah Palin for dinner at the White House with Trump. Nugent said their four-hour conversation was “down to earth, open and uninhibited.”

“The bureaucratic, establishment, status quo have just met their match,” Nugent said. “That’s why I’m happy Donald Trump is president, because he will eradicate the death wish of the status quo and the stranglehold they have had.”

Feature photo by David Livingston/Getty Images for NAMM/Getty Images Entertainment