Every campaign cycle produces some people who aren't quite suited for public life. Some even win!
Mark Clayton
Clayton is the Democratic candidate for Senate in Tennessee, and he's also a conspiracy theorist who believes in a "godless new world order" and in the mythical NAFTA superhighway, as outlined in a Mother Jones story from last week. By day, Clayton is a flooring installer, and despite not receiving the Tennessee Democrats' backing (in fact, they've bent over backwards to disavow him), he is set to face off against Sen. Bob Corker in November.
A sample, from Clayton's campaign website:
The Federal Government forced Tennessee to turn all driver's licenses into National ID cards with a secret electronic tag inside; and has created gigantic "Fusion Centers" for collecting information to hunt and track innocent Americans against our will; and mandates transexuals and homosexuals grabbing children in their stranger-danger zones in the name of airport security. Meanwhile, Congress continues to bring American workers to our knees, driving up the national debt and sending our economic infrastructure to China and Mexico. The US Congress has betrayed Americans for three decades. We must craft legislation which gives American citizens streamlined and legally inexpensive "cause of action" protections against the Federal Government for secret personal spy attacks and groping or else Americans will be too poor to defend themselves from their own treacherous Congress.
Gene Jeffress
Jeffress, a state senator, is running to represent Arkansas's fourth district in Congress. In a recent campaign stop, he used the n-word as part of an anecdote about Obamacare (the use of the word itself is attributed to Jeffress' interlocutor in the story he's telling, but it's still jarring to see):
