Kid Rock pushes Senate bid to the side, will work to register voters — for now

Rock musician and Michigan Republican Senate hopeful Robert Ritchie — better known to fans as Kid Rock — said he will be pushing his Senate bid to the side for the time being in order to focus on registering voters.

According to Ritchie's campaign website, the rocker said he noticed that, compared to how many were outraged, too few were registered to vote, and he would focus on first fixing that while he considered the idea of a possible Senate run:

When my name was thrown out there for US Senate I decided to launch kidrockforsenate.com. I was beyond overwhelmed with the response I received from community leaders, D.C. pundits, and blue-collar folks that are just simply tired of the extreme left and right bulls**t. As part of the excitement surrounding this possible campaign, I decided to take a hard look to see if there was real support for me as a candidate and my message or if it was just because it was a fresh news story. The one thing I've seen over and over is that although people are unhappy with the government, too few are even registered to vote or do anything about it. We have over a year left until an actual election, so my first order of business is to get people engaged and registered to vote while continuing to put out my ideas on ways to help working class people in Michigan and America all while still calling out these jackass lawyers who call themselves politicians.

Ritchie said that while he explores the idea of a Senate run, he will be setting up a nonprofit 501 (c)(4) to promote voter registration at places such as his concerts.

Ritchie also tackled the media's speculation that this was just a publicity stunt to sell merchandise, saying that he has "no problem selling Kid Rock shirts and yes, I absolutely will use this media circus to sell/promote whatever I damn well please."

Ritchie said that politicians do the same thing, "they just feed you a bunch of bulls**t about it."

Ritchie said that all merchandise sales will currently go to this voter registration effort.

"One thing is for sure though … The democrats are 'shattin’ in their pantaloons' right now … and rightfully so!" Ritchie said.

Ritchie noted that a news conference will be held in the next six weeks to address issues surrounding his campaign and added that, if he does decide to run for the seat, "believe me… it’s game on mthrfkers."

Ritchie first confirmed the rumors of a possible Senate run July 12 when he said his candidacy was an "absolute yes."

Since then, a poll was released that showed Ritchie leading incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow by 8 percentage points.