Observers who thought that Michigan politics could not get any more ridiculous and entertaining after Donald Trump carried the state unexpectedly last year were not anticipating the spectacle that the 2018 U.S. Senate race is shaping up to be. Career politician Debbie Stabenow is facing a possible Senate challenge from Kid Rock, who has given overtures that he will mount a Trump-style scorched Earth campaign as a Republican, but a new unexpected face has entered the mix: James Weeks II, better known as the man who bared all during the Libertarian National Convention last year.
A native son of Michigan, Weeks who works by day as an IT specialist is running for U.S. Senator in the Libertarian Party on a radical anarchist platform of arm the homeless. His first initiatives as a Senator would be to legalize drugs and prostitution, and then bring the troops home.
The platform is definitely a pro-freedom platform. I want to eliminate all the government bullsh-t, Weeks said bluntly in an interview with Libertarian Party member Todd Barnett. Thats pretty much it. Sums it up.
Despite being the bad boy of the Michigan Libertarian Party who is frequently suspended and otherwise disciplined for his raucous behavior, Weeks has emerged as arguably Michigans most noteworthy Libertarian figure.
Theyve always wanted to kick me out of the party
They dont like that my activism reaches the youth, Weeks said, referring to what he calls the upper crust of the Libertarian Party that he frequently battles. They want the party to die or something, or just be Republican junior. I want to bring into the party, a bunch of youth! And rally them up with actual libertarianism.
This will not be Weeks first foray into major politics. He received 3.7 percent of the vote in 2012 during a U.S. House run, before his scandalous strip tease rocked the Libertarian Party to its core. Following the now infamous incident, he ran for Livingston County sheriff and received 16 percent of the vote. This total, Weeks has boasted, was much higher than what most Libertarian candidates received in the state and around the country.
While outsiders may look at Weeks campaign as a joke, the political climate has never looked better for such a candidate to achieve success. As Donald Trump struts around the White House, the chances of a Libertarian nudist sashaying their way to national office has never looked better.