Porn star Cherie DeVille has ended her 2020 presidential campaign, citing a lack of support 17 months after declaring a long-shot bid to “Make America Fucking Awesome Again.”
DeVille, whose real name is Carolyn Paparozzi, initially received significant news coverage and said she dreamed of running in the Democratic primary. She later spoke with Reform and Libertarian party leaders, finding a third-party candidacy an easier route onto ballots.
“When I began the campaign and was building up speed, I really had hopes that this would actually happen for me,” DeVille told the Washington Examiner after ending her campaign this week. “Maybe as the cultural climate changes I can try again.”
A lack of financial support and threats from outraged strangers made her reconsider, DeVille said. National fame for fellow porn star Stormy Daniels didn’t help, either, despite Daniels’ alleged affair with President Trump emerging months into her campaign. It just made DeVille look unoriginal, she said.
“I wonder if that hurt the legitimacy of my campaign, as if, ‘Oh, there’s another porn girl trying to get in the political sphere,'” she said.
When Daniels announced a “Make America Horny Again” strip tour, DeVille decided her own plan to give lap dances to raise campaign funds was no longer feasible.
“Stormy was doing exactly that,” she lamented.
DeVille, now 40 years old, entered the porn industry late, drawn to the thrill of performing at 32. She continues to work part-time as a physical therapist. During her campaign, she filmed porn shoots about three days a week and continued to tweet X-rated content of herself.
The campaign and the publicity surrounding it wasn’t even particularly good for business. “It was more of a talking point on set, if anything,” she said. “It wasn’t good or bad for bookings.”
A fan of the libertarian Reason magazine and socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, DeVille advocates marijuana legalization, free education, gun control, and government-mandated net neutrality. She opposes President Trump.
“Other than my love, Bernie, I can’t really vote for one of the big parties,” DeVille said. “I still love Bernie so much. So much. I can’t help myself.”
Established political figures were careful not to touch her campaign.
“She isn’t my client. She isn’t on my radar,” former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile said last year. “I don’t have any thoughts on her bid,” said former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who was the Libertarian candidate in 2012 and 2016.
DeVille’s candidacy was plagued by unexpected problems. A sponsored press conference in August 2017 featured DeVille standing beside purported running mate Coolio, a rapper popular in the 1990s, on a Las Vegas stage. But she later parted ways with Coolio and the event sponsor, a business that sought to use the campaign for publicity.
DeVille declared she was serious, even if her original partners were not. She says she was surprised to receive public blowback, after people found her contact information online.
“People got crazy, mean, violent,” she said. “Perhaps that happens to all political candidates … but I don’t have the money for bodyguards.”
DeVille said she felt prepared for a public profile after years as an adult entertainer but was caught off-guard by people who “thought it was disgusting” that she was running.
“I even had people tell me it was a sign of the fact the U.S. was moving forward in a negative way and that they would end that,” she said. “People with those feelings about pornography are very serious, very serious about how they feel.”
“If we step out of our lane as — pardon my language — whores, now we are a problem and people don’t like it, in a way that I didn’t understand,” she said.
DeVille’s decision to drop out closely follows the decision by former West Virginia state Sen. Richard Ojeda to end his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination.
DeVille said she currently is working to set up a support group for young pornographic actors, and that another political campaign is not currently in the works. She said she’s pleased with her run, which she from the beginning hoped would break down sex worker stereotypes.
“Even if it only showed five people that pornographers are real people with vast interests … then it was worth it for me,” she said.
