American Idol alum Clay Aiken
has lost his bid to represent North Carolina's 2nd
Congressional District.
With 100 percent of districts
reporting, Aiken trailed Rep. Renee Ellmers by more than 36,000
votes. Voters returned Ellmers, a Republican and a Tea Party
favorite, to Congress for a third time.
Ellmers serves on the House Energy and
Commerce Committee and as chairwoman of the Republican Women's Policy
Committee.
Aiken, 35, narrowly won the Democratic
nomination in May.
Aiken, who came out gay in 2008, five
years after his second-place Idol finish, on the cover of
People magazine, said that frustration over dysfunction in
Washington was behind his decision to run for Congress.
“I took this upon myself about a year
ago after getting really frustrated with some of the dysfunction in
Washington,” Aiken
told CNN. “And being frustrated with the fact that the
representative who now serves me – I had been redistricted into a
different district than I had been in – I didn't believe was
listening to the people. I do believe that she went to Washington
because she wanted to do good for people. But when she got there, in
my opinion, she started listening to leaders in her party, instead of
the people at home.”
According to ABC
affiliate WTVD, Aiken's campaign bus broke down on Election Day
as it left a polling station. The bus had to be towed off the road.