Somebody is taking Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's lighthearted musings about running for president a little too seriously.
In a formal filing with the FEC first reported by The Hill, somebody has filed to create the campaign committee to draft Dwayne Johnson, the highest-paid actor in Hollywood who is better known by his WWE wrestling moniker “The Rock,” into running for office.
Paperwork establishing 'Run the Rock 2020,’ the name of the official organization, was filed on behalf of Johnson with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Sunday, according to FEC records. It was filed by a man named Kenton Tilford under a West Virginia address. Tilford's connection to Johnson and his motivation for filing the organization is not clear.
Johnson has often joked about a White House bid. During his fifth appearance on SNL – he hosted the show during the season 42 finale that aired in May – Johnson's humorous "launch" of his White House bid provided grist for his opening monologue, where he he would run backed by his vice presidential pick, Tom Hanks.
America, I hear you.
Tune in TONIGHT for our season finale of @nbcsnl for suprises and big laughs. #SNLFinale #5xHost #2020 ???????????????????? pic.twitter.com/EdEgDwXX4V
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 20, 2017
Speculation that the actor could enter the political arena has been circulating for years. Last June, the Washington Post published an editorial suggesting that he could be a strong candidate. In May of this year, in a GQ cover story that coincided with his SNL appearance, he told the magazine that a Johnson candidacy was a “real possibility.”
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Of course, as the magazine noted, when you think about the improbable trajectory the Rock’s career has taken – from University of Miami football star, to WWE wrestler, to Hollywood icon – the notion of a switch to politics doesn’t seem so unlikely:
“So far, Johnson's tale of success has been your classic rags-to-stretch-fabrics-to-riches story. He was born in California, the only child of Rocky Johnson, a pioneering black Nova Scotian wrestler who performed in a tag-team duo called the Soul Patrol, and Ata Maivia, who has ties, through her father, to the Anoa'i family—a legendary clan of Samoan wrestlers. Despite the legacy, Johnson grew up poor; he speaks of his family's eviction from a one-room apartment as the formative experience of his adolescence. He racked up numerous arrests for fighting and petty theft while still a minor. In high school, he found football, which helped him find college.”
But when GQ's Caity Weaver offered Johnson the opportunity to take a shot at President Donald Trump, the actor demurred.
“’How do you think Donald Trump is doing?’ I ask.
‘Mmm… With any job you come into, you've got to prove yourself. And…” Johnson pauses, performing lightning-fast mental calibrations. “Personally, I feel that if I were president, poise would be important. Leadership would be important. Taking responsibility for everybody. [If I didn't agree with someone] on something, I wouldn't shut them out. I would actually include them. The first thing we'd do is we'd come and sit down and we'd talk about it. It's hard to categorize right now how I think he's doing, other than to tell you how I would operate, what I would like to see.’”
There is, however, one complication that could make a 2020 White House bid difficult – unless the actor decides to circumvent the already weakened two-party system and seek to run as an independent. The Rock, while a registered independent, has traditionally identified more with Republican politics, even speaking at the party’s national convention in 2000.
But as one Hollywood executive quoted in the GQ profile noted, Johnson has traditionally tested well in “all four quadrants” – old men, young men, old women and young women – a quality that “virtually guarantees butts in seats.”
But will it help The Rock at the polls as well? Trump's TV career was certainly an asset, but he also had experience building a billion-dollar enterprise. The American people might not be so charitable when thet know there might not be much backing up the Rock's presidential bid besides good looks and a charming smile.
But after Tump's improbable rise from long-shot primaery contender to the Oval Office, writing him off at this stage in the game could be dangerous. Of course, the election of a Hollywood action star president would be a little too close to the dystopian future predicted in the 2006 Mike Judge film "idiocracy."
One things for sure: Given the Rock's on-screen successs, producers at CNN would probably have a field day if he ran.