Dwayne Johnson Gives The Full Sherman To Latest Presidential Inquiry
It appears it's that time of the year again. The leaves have started to change their shade, the weathermen and women are trying to smile their way through climbing yearly temperatures, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is once again updating the public on his ever-upcoming presidential campaign. The actor began flirting with the idea of entering the oval office as early as 2016, just before the American people would elect the controversial 45th president, Donald J. Trump.
Johnson is far from the first entertainer to show interest in political office. History remembers Arnold Schwarzenegger's stint as governor of the state of California, while more recent celebrities like Kanye West and Matthew McConaughey have announced intentions to hold office in the past as well. After all, why shouldn't they? Ronald Reagan and Trump himself — two influential American leaders — were both former entertainers.
However, the "Black Adam" star did make one surprising move that he had yet to make — he made a definitive, "Shermanesque" statement about the future of his political campaign. Perhaps nature is healing after all.
The Rock's candidacy is off the table
Speaking with CBS Sunday Morning's Tracy Smith, Dwayne Johnson announced that he has officially decided not to run for President of the United States of America. "I love our country and everyone in it," he said after declaring his long-expected candidacy in 2024 "off the table" (via Deadline).
He continued, "I also love being a daddy. And that's the most important thing to me ... Number one." The actor explained that his experience as one of the busiest members of the entertainment industry has provided some perspective on how a campaign would affect his relationship with his daughters: "I know what it's like to be on the road and be so busy that I was absent for a lot of years."
In one of the first interviews wherein Johnson publicly discussed his potential future candidacy, he also spoke about his daughters. Declining to elaborate on a strict political platform for Variety in 2017, he spoke at length about his anger and sadness about the issue of workplace sexual harassment in the entertainment industry (the interview took place just a few months after Ronan Farrow's fateful New Yorker piece that began the ousting of Harvey Weinstein and many other offenders from the industry). "I'm hopeful that my daughters are learning great lessons from what's happening right now," Johnson told Variety. "I'm hopeful in the spirit of what we are witnessing and experiencing now — this watershed moment that is deeply impacting the business that I make my living in."
A timeline of Johnson's politicial journey
Speculation around Dwayne Johnson's potential candidacy began in March 2016, after Johnson tweeted a link to an article from a defunct conservative WordPress blog called The Independent Journal (not to be confused with other publications using the same name). The actor was considered a Republican at the time (per GQ). Johnson's tweet was at least partly sarcastic (joking about the White House having room for his truck), though fan response and media coverage quickly spun it into something more serious — especially The Washington Post in June of that same year.
An exclusive from Variety in December 2017 reported that Johnson was seriously considering running, encouraged by interactions with the public. In the same interview, he explained that while he had previously voted for both Democrats and Republicans, he was currently a registered Independent. His plan at the time was to run in 2024, though his supporters wanted him to run sooner — Vanity Fair reported that filing had been made for a 2020 "Run The Rock" campaign committee on Johnson's behalf. Ultimately, however, he instead backed then-candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in his first-ever public endorsement (via ABC 7).
Interest in seeing The Rock as president waned as the years went on. In April 2021, he said that he would run if the public wanted him to after a poll concluded that 46% of Americans would support his campaign (per The Guardian). Yet later that year, speaking with Vanity Fair, he seemed unsure if he would be a good fit for the job. Just this year, a former Trump aide suggested that Johnson would be a strong Republican candidate capable of competing with Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.