Clay Travis says he’s seriously thinking about running for the Senate in Tennessee as an independent. He thinks he would easily get elected, unless Peyton Manning or Justin Timberlake decide to run, in which case all bets are off.
The iHeartRadio sports talk show host floated the idea on Fox Sports Radio Tuesday, explaining that the current incumbent, Republican Senator Bob Corker, may not run for reelection in 2018.
"I could run for Senate in the state of Tennessee and get elected"
— @ClayTravis. https://t.co/pgNauDAb4Z pic.twitter.com/PoB3de6lUl— FOX Sports Radio (@FoxSportsRadio) September 19, 2017
Travis has made headlines in recent months because of his public feud with ESPN (which he calls MSESPN) and because of comments he made last week while on CNN discussing ESPN’s Jemele Hill.
On Friday afternoon, Travis told host Brooke Baldwin that the only two things that had never let him down in life were the “First Amendment and boobs,” a statement he claims to have made “hundreds of times, either in written or spoken form.”
Baldwin feigned outrage and cut the segment short, but ever since then, Travis has been enjoying increased popularity and invitations to appear on lots of other talk shows.
The only thing holding him back from running, he said, is the “antiquated law” that prohibits people who have talk shows from running for office — because he really wants to keep doing his show.
“I’m not even joking about this,” Travis said.
He argued that if he walked around a University of Tennessee tailgate with a camera crew, every single person under 50 would recognize him. “We have 100% name recognition with Outkick and with me and it’s a really positive name recognition,” the sports host argued.
He added that his candidacy would “make the Republicans and Democrats both incredibly nervous.”
“I think I could win as an independent,” he insisted.
His only preconditions would be that the seat be vacant because he doesn’t want to run against an incumbent and that his opponent not be Peyton Manning, “because I think he could beat me,” he explained.
There were rumors last March that Manning, a Republican, might run for Republican Lamar Alexander’s seat in 2020.
Travis later conceded that if Justin Timberlake, another celebrity from Tennessee, decided to run, the mega-star Timberlake would probably beat him too.
“My wife would vote for J.T., and I wouldn’t blame her, either,” he said.
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