--- title: Jimmy Kimmel Convinced People That Kid Rock Is a Senator description: Although Kid Rock teased a Senate run last year, the musician ultimately revealed that his foray into politics was simply a promotional stunt. canonical: https://time.com/5447664/jimmy-kimmel-kid-rock-senator/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-07T15:48:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:52.629Z og:title: People Thought Kid Rock Was a Senator Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel og:description: "Watch now as real people weigh in on a fake election" og:url: https://time.com/5447664/jimmy-kimmel-kid-rock-senator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade655eb154b34ba/69893e778fd2eeba0235d12f/screen-shot-2018-11-07-at-9-52-24-am.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jimmy-Kimmel-Kid-Rock-Senator og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Thought Kid Rock Was a Senator Thanks to Jimmy Kimmel twitter:description: "Watch now as real people weigh in on a fake election" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade655eb154b34ba/69893e778fd2eeba0235d12f/screen-shot-2018-11-07-at-9-52-24-am.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Plenty of People Totally Bought That Kid Rock Became a Senator Thanks to a Classic Jimmy Kimmel Prank  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 7, 2018 3:48 PM UTC  ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 7, 2018 3:48 PM UTC Although [Kid Rock](http://time.com/5422100/kid-rock-kanye-west-trump-white-house/) [teased a Senate run in Michigan](http://time.com/4939225/read-kid-rock-speech-detroit-transcript/) last year, the musician ultimately revealed that his foray into politics was simply a [promotional stunt](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/10/24/kid-rock-says-senate-campaign-was-a-stunt/?noredirect=on&utm%5Fterm=.b95e4033f5fd) for his 2017 album _Sweet Southern Sugar_. But apparently not all Americans are aware that Kid Rock gave up on his bid. In yet another edition of “Lie Witness News” focused on the 2018 midterm elections, Jimmy Kimmel sent his team out to the street to convince random passerby that the people of Michigan elected Kid Rock to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. “Last year, you may recall, Kid Rock announced he was running for the Senate. Of course, it turned out to be a publicity stunt. But what if it wasn’t?” Kimmel explained leading up to the segment. “We went out on the street and we told people that Kid Rock won the special election for Senate. We even showed them footage of Kid Rock in concert and told them it was his victory speech. Watch now as real people weigh in on a fake election.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5447664/jimmy-kimmel-kid-rock-senator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5447664/jimmy-kimmel-kid-rock-senator/"},"headline":"Plenty of People Totally Bought That Kid Rock Became a Senator Thanks to a Classic Jimmy Kimmel Prank","datePublished":"2018-11-07T15:48:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:52.629Z","description":"\"Watch now as real people weigh in on a fake election\"","url":"https://time.com/5447664/jimmy-kimmel-kid-rock-senator/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Jimmy Kimmel","TV","jimmy kimmel live","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade655eb154b34ba/69893e778fd2eeba0235d12f/screen-shot-2018-11-07-at-9-52-24-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltade655eb154b34ba/69893e778fd2eeba0235d12f/screen-shot-2018-11-07-at-9-52-24-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jimmy-Kimmel-Kid-Rock-Senator","caption":"","creditText":"ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5447664/jimmy-kimmel-kid-rock-senator/","name":"Plenty of People Totally Bought That Kid Rock Became a Senator Thanks to a Classic Jimmy Kimmel Prank"}}]}] ```