AMERICAN IDOL star CLAY AIKEN will run for Congress in North Carolina.
Aiken, 35, one of the more successful “Idol" contestants to actually have a career ahs released solo LPs and trod the great white way on Broadway in the musical "Monty Python's Spamalot."
As The ENQUIRER previously reported in 2008, Aiken first revealed publicly that he was gay after becoming a father that year.
Aiken said he will run for U.S. Congress as a Democrat in his home state of North Carolina, where he once worked as a special education teacher.
Aiken will be facing a tough opponent in his attempt to unseat Republican Representative Renee Ellmers in the state's uber-conservative 2nd congressional district.
In a video on his campaign website, Aiken said "If you only know the part of my story that begins with a golden ticket, something that still seems unbelievable to me even to this day, you might wonder what would qualify me to run."
He noted his work teaching children with autism and his international travels with aid organization UNICEF and, of course, his runner-up finish in 2003 on "American Idol" which propelled him to fame.
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