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Who is Deez Nuts and why is he polling so well in the United States?

It started off as a practical joke, but has since snowballed.

NewsHD Viral / YouTube

WITH ALL THE recent bombast from presidential candidates, it is not unusual that one of these nuts is gaining ground on frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And by these nuts, we mean Deez Nuts.

He might sound like someone pranking America, but Deez Nuts is holding his own, polling as an independent at 9% in North Carolina and 8% in Minnesota against the biggest names in the 2016 White House race, according to Public Policy Polling (PPP).

And oh, he’s a 15-year-old boy from Iowa.

Deez Nuts is polling at 7% in his home state, according to PPP, numbers that current back-of-the-packers like Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Bobby Jindal and former senator Jim Webb would die for.

It might have started off as a joke, but he is no fiction. Deez Nuts filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on July 26.

His real name, he confirmed in an email interview with Rolling Stone magazine, is Brady Olson. He is starting his sophomore year in high school.

A Mark Olson, who is listed at the Wallingford, Iowa address on the FEC filing, confirmed on Twitter that Deez Nuts is “my 15 year old son”.

Deez Nuts has capitalised on the popularity of a juvenile anatomical Internet meme of the same name.

But PPP director Tom Jensen said there is something to be said for the surprise support that independent Deez Nuts has garnered in the short time he has been on the political radar.

“It’s just a reflection of how disgusted voters are with the two-party system right now,” Jensen told AFP on Thursday, adding that the favorability numbers for Clinton and Trump are in the cellar.

Any poll we do we find voters overall don’t like them.

And so PPP decided “it would be fun” to throw Deez Nuts into the mix.

PPP did not mention Deez Nuts in its main questions about which candidates respondents supported in the group’s North Carolina poll earlier this month.

But they then asked:

If the candidates for president next year were Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and independent Deez Nuts, who would you vote for?

40% chose Trump, 38% Clinton, and 9% Nuts. 12% were not sure.

GOP 2016 Trump Associated Press Associated Press

“I really didn’t want to see Clinton, Bush, or Trump in the White House, so I guess I’m just trying to put up a fight,” Nuts told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview.

Asked how far he was willing to take his practical joke, his response was shrewd:

As far as America wants to take it.

Political reality may ultimately squeeze Deez Nuts out of genuine contention: the US Constitution says no one under age 35 is eligible to be commander in chief.

© – AFP, 2015

Read: Heard about the time Gerry Adams met Donald Trump? >

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    Fozz
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    Mute Fozz
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:24 AM

    If there is such apathy and negativity towards the Two parties, then why doesn’t a legitimate 3rd party rise up?

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    Mute John Lally
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:30 AM

    Please watch episode one of season eight of The Simpsons, ‘Treehouse of Horror VII’, for the answer to that question

    143
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    Mute Jimmy Jim-Jim
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:33 AM

    It’s extremely difficult for outside candidates to get on TV debates as the decisions about who get on there are made according to rules agreed upon by both parties with the aim of making life difficult for a 3rd party or independent candidate.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Aug 21st 2015, 11:33 AM

    Ross Perot was the last. Trump could have done it but that wouldn’t have been as much fun for him.

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    Mute Jimmy Jim-Jim
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    Aug 21st 2015, 1:42 PM

    What’s the chances of Bernie Sanders running as an independent do you think?

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    Mute Terry O'Dowd
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    Aug 21st 2015, 2:44 PM

    @Jimmy: He said that he wouldn’t. Trump said the opposite.

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Aug 22nd 2015, 12:31 AM

    I don’t think he has the money for it. It would be amazing though. He’d be the hand grenade between the two parties. Both wondering whether to try to put the pin back in or run!

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    Mute John Doyle
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:04 AM

    Would love to see a Mexican go head to head with Trump.

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    Mute Infidel
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:10 AM

    Trump feeds and clothes thousands of Mexicans and Latinos through any number of his successful business.

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    Mute Ross Stewart
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:40 AM

    Infidel, you make it sound like charity. What you mean is, mexicans work for trump in tough jobs with low wages.

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    Mute Infidel
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:42 AM

    Trump loves legal immigrant Latinos that’s my point.

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    Mute Ross Stewart
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:46 AM

    Of course, he makes huge profits off them. Whether mexicans like Trump is a different matter altogether

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    Mute Stephen Bernard
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:48 AM

    That sounds really gay, John.

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    Mute Infidel
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    Aug 21st 2015, 10:01 AM

    Trump makes a profit and the Latinos make a living and good for them, fair arrangement that suits both.

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    Mute Tiffany Mary O'Brien
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    Aug 21st 2015, 10:46 AM

    @Infidel : You got your arse badly kicked on this subject before by ‘West Cork Lad’ ..

    Give up child as you’ll be heading for the ICU for your next burning ..Poor pet!

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    Mute michael
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    Aug 21st 2015, 10:53 AM

    Inside the octagon

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Aug 21st 2015, 12:51 PM

    Name some that do or 1…

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    Mute EDDIE BARRETT
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    Aug 21st 2015, 1:40 PM

    Infidel – It’s what I love about your Comments – You dig the hole deeper and deeper for yourself everyday!
    One of these days, I reckon , that you will land in Australia , from speaking through your ample posterior ???

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    Mute SilentFugitive
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    Aug 21st 2015, 8:59 AM

    Is it too late for Pedro to join the running? He”d get my vote. #VoteForPedro

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    Mute Luke Evans
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:38 AM

    He’s transfered to Chelsea mate

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    Mute Ruairi Kehoe
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    Aug 21st 2015, 11:39 AM

    Build her a cake or something(in a Mexican accent)

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    Mute Rod_TenⒸ
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    Aug 21st 2015, 8:49 AM

    Dustin for President

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    Mute andrew haire
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    Aug 21st 2015, 8:56 AM

    Gerry Adams for president.

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    Mute Frank Garrett
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:10 AM

    Gerry Adams for the electric chair.

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    Mute Rod_TenⒸ
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:47 AM

    Sure he’s already a Baron

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    WJH
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    Aug 21st 2015, 8:56 AM

    Suck on Deez Nuts!

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    Mute Jason Reilly
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    Aug 21st 2015, 12:29 PM

    Latest reports from Washington are that Turd Sandwich and Giant Douche also set to join presidential race

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    Mute Infidel
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:09 AM

    Wow Trump beating out the poisonous Hillary Clinton. Great signs his grassroots campaign continues to develop momentum.

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    Mute Infidel
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:23 AM

    Incidentally it’s no surprise the journal continues to ignore the slow demise of their one time idol and soon to be disgraced convict Hillary Clinton.

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    Mute Jimmy Jim-Jim
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:35 AM

    You seem a lot more confident than must that she will face a custodial sentence.

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    Mute Infidel
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:45 AM

    I said she’d be convicted I said nothing about custodial sentences, her being a Clinton I’d say she will blow the judge to keep herself out of jail.

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    Mute Jimmy Jim-Jim
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:52 AM

    True. I can’t see it going much further than a Senate committee myself. That’s not to say she doesn’t deserve prison though.

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    Mute Anton Friendo
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    Aug 21st 2015, 10:22 AM

    Look at all the down votes.

    That is because the sheeple actually think Hillary is a liberal.

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    Mute Ryan Hardy
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    Aug 21st 2015, 11:30 AM

    I’m coming for you Infidel

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Aug 21st 2015, 11:31 AM

    The Daily Show os on a break….I have nothing to add

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Aug 21st 2015, 1:09 PM

    And yet you did?

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    Mute Jimmy Murphy
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    Aug 21st 2015, 11:05 AM

    Can’t be a bigger nut than Trump anyway.

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    Mute Sternn
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:54 AM

    Hahah! Testicles!

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    Mute David McShite
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    Aug 21st 2015, 10:59 AM

    #noneoftheabove.

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Aug 21st 2015, 11:01 AM

    Who calls a child Brady???

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Aug 21st 2015, 12:38 PM

    Mark Olson does

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Aug 21st 2015, 12:52 PM

    What is this that all U.S. Presidents go through a ceremony when elected to invite the spirit of Osiris into them??? Freemasonary bull…

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    Mute Al coholic
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    Aug 21st 2015, 9:24 AM
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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Aug 21st 2015, 1:08 PM

    These Nuts, These Nuts…

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