Clay Aiken Loses North Carolina Congressional Bid | Playbill

News Clay Aiken Loses North Carolina Congressional Bid Clay Aiken, former "American Idol" contestant and Broadway performer, has been defeated by Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers in his bid for election in North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/f02a8f5a30abe2b7bec21d3c288d50f9-Aiken200_1361552603.jpg
Clay Aiken

Aiken, who ran on the Democratic ticket, became a household name in 2003 as runner up on "American Idol," and later appeared in the Broadway production of Spamalot in 2008.

According to CNN.com, Ellmers won with 59 percent of the vote.

“I think a lot of people have been surprised with the success we’ve had,” he said during a New York City fundraiser attended by many in the Broadway community in early October. “But I haven’t been as surprised. I don’t get into something that I don’t think I have an ability to be successful at.”

Read more about the night here.

The openly-gay performer turned his art into activism in recent years, taking on a UNICEF ambassadorship in 2004 as well as creating the National Inclusion Project and being appointed a two-year term on the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. 

 
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!