Brady Rogers, a 33-year-old from Kelowna, Canada, won a city council election with a platform of not knowing or caring how politics works, using slogans like "just trying to pay my rent" and "how hard could it be." 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."
Unusual Career Changes
Brazilian clown Francisco Oliveira Silva, known as Tiririca, was elected to the country's Congress in 2010 with 1.3 million votes under the slogan "It can't get any worse." In a campaign advert, he admitted he had no idea what a congressman did but promised to find out if elected. He was later ordered to take a literacy test amid allegations he couldn't read or write.
Alejandra Omaña Ruiz, who performed in films as Amaranta Hank, switched from adult content to Colombia's national congress in 2026. The 34-year-old, who campaigned for better treatment of sex workers, won a seat in Colombia's Senate. She follows Ilona Staller, who became the first person to show her breasts on Italian TV, joined Italy's Radical Party, and married artist Jeff Koons. Staller offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Vladimir Putin in exchange for peace.
Political Wonderkids
In 2005, 18-year-old Michael Sessions became mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, while still at school. He served for four years, planning to conduct city business from his bedroom. James Tufts became honorary mayor of Dorset, Minnesota, in 2015 at age three, taking over from his brother Bobby. The role was ceremonial and awarded through a raffle, with Tufts reportedly considering his main duty "eating ice cream."
In Nigeria, politician Mahmoud Sadis Buba, who claimed to be 30, was accused of being born in 2010 and therefore only 16. He reportedly explained his child-like appearance as hereditary dwarfism, but an image purporting to show his passport circulated online. The allegation has not been independently established.
Mel Carnahan won the 2000 US Senate election in Missouri despite being dead. The 66-year-old Democrat, who died in a plane crash three weeks before election day, narrowly beat his living rival John Ashcroft. His widow Jean was appointed to the Senate in his place, serving two years.
Actual Animals in Office
In 2002, Hartlepool voters elected Stuart Drummond, then 28, who was moonlighting as H'Angus the Monkey, the mascot of Hartlepool United Football Club. He campaigned in his monkey costume, promising free bananas for schoolchildren, and won a job paying around £53,000 a year. Drummond won re-election twice, remaining mayor for 11 years until the position was scrapped in 2013.
In 1981, residents of Sunol, California, made a Labrador-Rottweiler cross called Bosco honorary mayor after he defeated two human candidates. He served until his death in 1994. In 2014, a seven-year-old dog called Duke was elected honorary mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota, with a year's supply of dog food as a reward.
In 1959, voters in São Paulo, Brazil, cast around 100,000 protest votes for a rhinoceros called Cacareco, who lived at the city's zoo. The beast received more votes than any individual human candidate, but the ballots were declared invalid.
