The world of politics is too often full of people that look and act the same, but sometimes a candiate comes along who does things a little bit differently
Politicians come in all shapes and sizes. From irritating narcissists who enjoy hearing themselves speak, to annoying egotists who love the sound of their own voice, the political class of planet Earth are a diverse bunch.
To be fair, not everyone who runs for office is just some suit and tie full of nothing but hot air. From outrageous adult stars to twisted criminals, and even sometimes kids and animals – over the years all sorts of folk have made headlines by trying, and sometimes succeeding, to win an election.
Only this week, a bloke from Canada won a city council election running on a platform of not knowing or caring how politics works.
Brady Rogers, 33, won a seat on the City of Kelowna’s council by using slogans like “just trying to pay my rent” and “how hard could it be”, all of which clearly resonated with the electorate.
In a post on his website, Rogers wrote: “Do I enjoy politics? No. Do I know what I’m doing? No. But am I qualified? Also no.” In honour of Rogers’ successful campaign, the Star takes a look at some of the maddest and baddest to have succeeded in the world of politics.
Career change
So-called ‘career’ politicians often get a lot of flack for never having had a real job, so it’s always nice when someone gets elected with some proper life experience.
And few have made a more unusual career change than Brazilian clown Francisco Oliveira Silva, better known as Tiririca, who was elected to the country’s Congress in 2010. The professional entertainer won a staggering 1.3 million votes after running a campaign under the slogan “It can’t get any worse.”
In one campaign advert, the clown admitted he had absolutely no idea what a congressman actually did, but promised to find out if voters elected him.
Unfortunately, his celebrations were briefly interrupted when he was ordered to take a literacy test amid allegations he couldn’t read or write, which would have made him ineligible to serve.
Other eye-catching switches have been from the adult industry, with several stars swapping creating adult content for politics over the years, with some making a real difference after doing so.
Take Alejandra Omaña, who made the switch from X-rated material to Colombia’s national congress in 2026. The 34-year-old, who performed in films under the name Amaranta Hank, long campaigned for better treatment of sex workers while working in the industry. And she has continued her work since winning a seat in Colombia’s Senate.
Omaña is following in the footsteps of legendary adult entertainer turned politician Ilona Staller, who in a truly remarkable life became the first person to show her breasts on Italian TV, joined Italy’s Radical Party and married artist Jeff Koons.
Throughout her career, Staller made provocative offers, including offering to have sex with Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Vladimir Putin in exchange for peace.
And it’s not just adult entertainers who have made the switch, with actors such as Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and, of course, more recently Volodymyr Zelenskyy swapping the silver screen for the podium.
Political wonderkids
While lived experience can be useful in politics, sometimes the vim and vigour of youth can be a force for good. This line of thinking has on occasion gone quite far, with a whole host of literal children being awarded various seats of power around the world.
In 2005, 18-year-old Michael Sessions made global headlines when he became the mayor of Hillsdale in Michigan while still at school.
Sessions, who served as mayor for four years, planned to conduct city business from his bedroom and promised to work hard to balance his political duties with his homework.
Blowing Sessions out of the water is James Tufts, who became honorary mayor of Dorset, Minnesota in the US in 2015 when he was just three-years-old.
The toddler took over from his older brother Bobby, who had previously held the title, with the young politicians apparently promising to “be nice” and avoid “poopy talk”.Tufts, whose role was only ceremonial and was awarded through a raffle, reportedly considered his main duty “eating ice cream”.
In Nigeria, a politician who claimed to be 30 was remarkably accused of being born in 2010, and therefore only 16, despite having been in office for several years.
Mahmoud Sadis Buba had reportedly explained his seemingly child-like appearance as the result of hereditary dwarfism. But an image purporting to show his passport circulated online, suggesting the youthful politician was born in 2010. The allegation has not been independently established.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Mel Carnahan won the 2000 US Senate election in Missouri despite being dead. That may sound ridiculous, but the 66-year-old Democrat, who died in a plane crash three weeks before election day, remained on the ballot and narrowly beat his living rival John Ashcroft in what must have been a pretty humiliating defeat.
Carnahan’s widow Jean was appointed to the Senate in his place, where she would serve two years before being voted out.
Actual animals
If you think the people running your local council are a bunch of animals, spare a thought for the residents of several towns around the world who have literally elected them.
Perhaps the most famous example comes from Hartlepool, where voters decided in 2002 that the best person to run their town was a man dressed as a monkey.
Stuart Drummond, then 28, was working in a call centre while moonlighting as H’Angus the Monkey, the mascot of Hartlepool United Football Club. He decided to stand for mayor as a bit of a laugh, campaigning in his monkey costume and promising free bananas for schoolchildren.
But the joke got slightly out of hand when he actually won, defeating Labour’s candidate to land a job paying around £53,000 a year. Even more remarkably, Drummond proved popular enough to win re-election twice, remaining mayor for 11 years until Hartlepool scrapped the position altogether in 2013.
Across the pond, Americans have gone one step further by electing actual animals, rather than blokes dressed up as them. In 1981, residents of Sunol, California, made a Labrador-Rottweiler cross called Bosco their honorary mayor after he defeated two human candidates.
The four-legged politician reportedly became something of a celebrity, even making international headlines during his lengthy reign, which lasted until his death in 1994.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, a seven-year-old dog called Duke was elected honorary mayor of the tiny community of Cormorant in 2014. His political reward included a year’s supply of dog food, while his inauguration preparations involved a trip to the groomers.
And it turns out Americans aren’t the only ones who have decided they’d rather be represented by an animal. In 1959, fed-up voters in São Paulo, Brazil, cast around 100,000 protest votes for a rhinoceros called Cacareco, who lived at the city’s zoo.
The enormous beast reportedly received more votes than any individual human candidate in the council election, although sadly for democracy’s animal lovers, the ballots were declared invalid.
Still, with the state of politics around the world, you can hardly blame voters for occasionally wanting someone who can’t talk back.