Who Is The 15-Year-Old Running For Prez?

Last month, yet another presidential hopeful filed with the Federal Election Commission to run in 2016. And for once, it wasn't a Republican. It was an Independent candidate from Iowa that went by the name Deez Nuts. The mysterious candidate seemed to have come out of nowhere and is now polling at an impressive 9 percent in North Carolina. So just who was this mysterious political maverick with a highly unfortunate name? It turns out Deez Nuts is actually 15-year-old Brady Olson, an Iowa farm boy who's about to start his sophomore year of high school. So while he may not be a real politician, he's certainly a maverick.

After filing to run on July 26, Nuts launched an official campaign website outlining the candidate's platform. For example, he takes a strict stance on illegal immigration, but is pro-choice and an advocate of marriage equality. He also offers a solution to the budget crisis (cut every federal official's salary in half), supports the current Iran nuclear agreement, and would give citizens in U.S. territories the same voting rights as those in the states.

Overall, it sounds like Nuts would make a pretty fine president, especially when compared to our other options. And now, according to a recent Public Policy Poll, he's the top-polling Independent, gaining 9 percent of the vote in North Carolina, 8 percent in Minnesota, and 7 percent in his home state of Iowa. But before we all go displaying Deez Nuts signs on our lawns, reminder: Deez Nuts is not a real person. And the mastermind behind him, Brady Olson, is barely past puberty.

In an email statement to The Guardian, Olson explained:

My name is not Deez Nuts. I am a 15-year-old who filled out a form, had the campaign catch on fire, and am now putting up the best third-party numbers since Ross Perot.

Olson is clearly not your average high schooler. Instead of spending his free time after school playing video games or cavorting with his peers, he's been mounting a presidential campaign and preparing to take on his competition, which includes the likes of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Jeb Bush. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Olson said he didn't want to see any of the front-runners in office, and therefore, he's "trying to put up a fight."

As for the testicle-referencing moniker? Olson confirmed that Deez Nuts stems from the term "bofa deez", which Urban Dictionary defines as:

A slang reference to one's own testicles. Bofa — meaning both of, and deez — meaning these.

Hence, a correct usage of the term would be "I'm proud of bofa deez nuts."

Aside from being high-school-boy-appropriate, the name Deez Nuts has a deeper meaning. When asked if it was a comment on the country's two-party system, Olson answered, "Half trying to break the two-party system, half frustration with the front-runners." Upon first glance, Olson might appear to be an average teenage prankster who's satisfied with merely seeing the words "Deez Nuts" appear on an official poll, but one soon comes to realize that Olson knows exactly what he's doing. He revealed his next plans to The Daily Beast:

The next step is to get some party nominations, like the Minnesota Independence Party or the Modern Whig Party. It would also be great to find a VP, preferably McCubbins because the Nuts/McCubbins ticket sounds amazing.

Limberbutt McCubbins is the 2016 election cycle's only cat candidate.

Who knows? Maybe Olson has the political chops required of a commander-in-chief. When asked by Rolling Stone why he would make a good president, Olson offered a very valid point:

Because I'm young and I think I have fresher ideas because whatever decisions I make would have longer effects on me.

Image: Lucas Incas/Flickr