Cherie DeVille began her professional life as a licensed physical therapist. She was living in Tennessee when, at 32 years old, she decided that it was time for an “exciting and outside the box” opportunity. She flew to California and became a porn star.
DeVille, now 39, shoots approximately 200 scenes a year, likening the excitement of her performances to sky-diving. But she says she’s interested in another unlikely career change, this time entering politics to become president of the United States.
“I really do believe that I can do this and that I can do this well,” DeVille told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. “I want to be a positive voice, not just in my industry, but in the world for sex workers.”
DeVille, whose real name is Carolyn Paparozzi, describes herself as a “left-leaning libertarian” and said her campaign is getting “more serious,” with active consideration of whether to seek the Libertarian or Democratic nomination.
The campaign didn’t start off so seriously. She launched her bid last year with a shadow cabinet of fellow porn stars, with rapper Coolio as her “running mate.” He has since parted ways, as has the company Fucking Awesome, which threw a launch event.
“A lot of people did not think I was serious,” DeVille said. But she insists that she is.
DeVille said she likes to read the libertarian Reason magazine and that her favorite politician is Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. She wants to legalize marijuana, impose new gun control legislation, and resurrect government-mandated net neutrality.
The candidate said she’s not clueless to politics or the way the world works. DeVille holds a doctorate and still works part time as a physical therapist, but said that her acting career provides her a political springboard.
“For better or worse, I have a voice because of the job I do,” she said. “Even though, best case scenario, anyone can run for president, that’s just not how our country is set up. You either need to be in the political machine, be incredibly rich, or be in the public eye for another reason.”
Right now, DeVille said, she’s seriously considering a run for the Libertarian nomination. If enough enthusiasm builds, she said she may run as a Democrat.
“I would love to be the Democratic candidate, I’m just not sure how realistic it is,” she said. “Who knows, maybe things will change in a direction I’m not expecting and that will become more realistic.”
DeVille said, “Right now I’m in the infant stages” of campaigning and that “clearly my views align with the Democratic Party the best.”
DeVille said money is the biggest factor determining how to proceed. She’s considering using exotic dancing bookings as a way to self-fund campaign stops. She has ruled out a Republican run against Trump because “I have so few Republican ideals. It would almost be comical.”
To build support for her campaign, DeVille recently launched a new campaign website. On Friday, her manager has arranged for a filmed address extolling her candidacy to appear on the homepage of Pornhub as a creative way to reach the masses without legacy media coverage.
There’s plenty of precedent for a long-shot bid to snatch a party’s presidential ballot line. Antivirus software pioneer John McAfee tried and failed to seize the Libertarian nod in 2016. Actress Roseanne Barr failed to get the Green Party endorsement in 2012 before winnng the Peace and Freedom Party’s nomination. And in the most famous example, billionaire Donald Trump performed a 2016 hostile takeover of the Republican Party to become president.
Leading members of the parties DeVille is eyeing are predictably doubtful about her viability.
“As a former chair of the DNC, I don’t wish to comment on every candidate who might decide to run for office. She isn’t my client. She isn’t on my radar,” said Donna Brazile, who led the Democratic Party during the 2016 election.
“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.
Libertarian Party Chairman Nicholas Sarwark, meanwhile, said that “Ms. Deville is welcome to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination at our 2020 national convention in Austin, Texas. Whether her positions will be close enough to the Libertarian Party platform to be a viable candidate is a question that will be decided by the delegates at that convention.”
Deville’s candidacy was unveiled last year, months before fellow porn star Stormy Daniels’s $130,000 hush agreement with President Trump was publicly reported. She said she wanted, in part, to pillory what she saw as a circus-like reality of Trump’s presidency.
Although Daniels’ connection to Trump became public after DeVille’s campaign began, she fears people will think she’s riding on the controversy’s coattails.
“The most shocking part about it is she did it for free. The first time I read it, I said ‘bullshit!’” DeVille said about Daniels’ alleged affair with Trump.
DeVille said that at the very least, she hopes to use her campaign to put a positive face on sex workers, and to denounce Trump.
“I would be embarrassed to be so unprofessional on my Cherie DeVille Twitter, which is entirely pornography,” she said about the president.
Richard Winger, the editor of Ballot Access News and an expert in presidential politics, said DeVille has a steep climb if she actually wants a party nomination.
“Libertarians will not nominate anyone for president, who hasn’t run first for a lesser office [as a Libertarian candidate], unless they are a former congressmember or a former governor,” he said.
Winger said however well-intentioned, DeVille may not realize how big the 2020 field will be.
“In 2016 there were over 1,300 people who told the FEC that they were running for president,” he said. “People who think they can get attention by running for president are usually unaware of what a mob claims to be running for president.”
