var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};Clay Aiken just released his first video announcing his run for the U.S. Congress. The 35-year old Democratic North Carolina native wants to unseat Tea Party Congresswoman Renee Ellmers. Ellmers, you probably remember, was a strident voice attacking Obamacare in the weeks before October, when it officially became effective. She was lambasted by many of her own constituents for her less-than accurate or honest portrayals of the President’s health care program, and accused of being “angry” and an “embarrassment.”
In his video, Aiken explains why he’s running, how his upbringing by a mother who was a victim of domestic violence shaped his desire to help people, how his faith helps him believe that people are essentially good, and how his work with the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, the National Inclusion Project — a foundation he created to help children with special needs — and UNICEF also helped shape his world view.
In a press release and in the video, Aiken notes that Rep. Renee Ellmers “has made herself vulnerable by taking orders from her party leadership and voting 10 times for spending cuts that hurt the military and military families – cuts that she admitted would hurt the district and the country. She also voted 21 times for the government shutdown in 2013 at the direction of her party leaders, even though she predicted it would be a ‘disaster’ for the economy. After voting to shutdown the government Ellmers even said she needed to keep getting her Congressional paycheck.”
“This is what’s wrong with Washington,” says Aiken. “That a Congresswoman would go [to Washington] and vote against the best interests of North Carolina military families and those who depend on the military for their jobs. To do it when you know it’s wrong is even worse.”
//www.youtube.com/embed/EpePzRPiB30
You can visit Aiken on his campaign website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.