Watch Conan O’Brien, Aimee Mann, Ted Leo Stump for Lincoln Chafee
In a crowded presidential hopeful field occupied by titans like Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and “Deez Nuts,” Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee is all but an afterthought as the Republican-turned-Democratic candidate hovers just above 0 percent of the vote. However, reinforcements are on the way as Conan O’Brien, Aimee Mann and Ted Leo are now leading the effort to get Chafee over that 1 percent barrier.
“I’m making it my mission tonight to help Lincoln Chafee from 0 percent all the way to 1 percent,” the host said on Conan this week. “Let’s be honest, I’m not trying to get him elected, okay? In fact, I’m personally not going to vote for him. But I think we should at least get him on the board so he’s at least not humiliated, seems like the nice thing to do.”
O’Brien also shared some fun facts about the little-known candidate: He was once a racehorse farrier, he’s pro-marijuana and same-sex marriage and he’s very in favor of adopting the metric system. (Rolling Stone‘s presidential primer gave Chafee the Secret Service codename “Millimeter.”)
Mann and Leo, who joined forces as the Both in 2014, then came out to perform their campaign song for Chafee, sung to the tune of Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy.” “Used to be / Republican / Switched to Dem in 2010 / The pride of Rhode Island / His horses’ hooves were stylin’ / Wants the metric system to the U.S. / A plan with zero gram’s chance of success,” Mann and Leo sing. “He’s Lincoln Chafee / For President / You don’t have to vote for him / Just get him to 1 percent.”
Chafee seemed appreciative of both the “unsolicited, unofficial” campaign song and O’Brien’s 1 percent efforts as the candidate retweeted Ted Leo‘s tweets about the Conan appearance.
While Chafee is still on the outskirts of the presidential race, he is on Deez Nuts’ radar. As the 15-year-old candidate born Brady Olson told Rolling Stone, when he applied to run for President, “I wanted it to be against low-pollers, like me vs. Lindsey Graham vs. Lincoln Chafee, to see how desperate voters would be in that situation.” Instead, Deez Nuts is faring well ahead of Chafee in the polls.