Kid Rock may need to use real name in run for Senate

Aug. 16 (UPI) — Kid Rock might be required to use his real name, Robert Ritchie, if he continues to move forward on his promise to run for Senate in Michigan in 2018.

To appear on the ballot against incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Kid Rock will need to submit enough valid signatures and indicate that he wants to be listed by his stage name. The Michigan Bureau of Elections staff would then need to research whether his stage name would be permissible, Us Weekly reported.

Michigan’s Affidavit of Identity and Receipt of Filing states that a candidate “may specify that both his or her given name and middle name, or only a middle name, shall appear on the ballot,” or “may specify a name that constitutes a common law name in accordance with the Michigan Department of State Guidelines.”

Candidates are not allowed to use a “nickname that is not a recognized diminutive of the candidate’s given name.”

Kid Rock announced in July in plans to run for Senate on Twitter alongside the release of a campaign website, kidrockforsenate.com. “I have had a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real… kidrockforsenate.com The answer is an absolute YES,” he tweeted at the time.

The 46-year-old is a self-declared conservative who has endorsed Donald Trump and Mitt Romney in the past.

Former New York governor and three-term Republican George Patakiendorses Kid Rock as he likes the idea of the GOP reaching out to non-traditional candidates.

“I don’t think the Republican Party should limit its candidates to the usual path — lawyers, businesspeople and doctors,” Pataki said while speaking with Syracuse.com. “I don’t think he is a joke. I think he has every right to run.”

Pataki tweeted on Tuesday that “Kid Rock is exactly the kind of candidate the GOP needs right now.”