Congressional candidate Clay Aiken told NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday that his past as an "American Idol" star is equal parts positive and negative.
"It's both. You know, you've got to get people to see me in a different light. Getting the opportunity to talk to people about the issues that are affecting them and talk about how I want to help people, gets people to see me in a different light. It's a blessing in the fact that it gets me in the room, but I have to overcome the fact that people see me in one way and not the other," Aiken said.
Aiken, a Democrat, will face off with incumbent Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers in North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District in November.
Earlier this year, Ellmers criticized Aiken's career and suggested he was thinking about a life in politics because he was bored. When asked about her comments, he replied that he is fully aware of the uphill battle ahead of him.
"I'm not naive to the fact that this a challenge that I have to overcome. It's a mountain to climb, but we've had quite a bit of success in the past three months in climbing it and we'll continue to do that the next six," he said.
While the district he's competing in is full of Republican voters, Aiken added he is still optimistic about the campaign and election.
"This district is about a third independent. And so it has swayed conservatively in the past. But also, more historically, even more further back in the past, it's gone to a Democrat," Aiken said. "People are tired of partisan politics. You've got everyone who votes because people in the media talk about R and D. But people at home, they don't talk about party. They talk about the things that are important to them."
Though Aiken entered the spotlight in 2002 after "American Idol," he made headlines in 2008 after coming out as gay. While he does not plan to run primarily on marriage equality, he told "Today" that he is not shying away from the issue.
"I don't know that we're necessarily particularly specifically down playing anything. We're up playing the things that are affecting people's lives. The fact that students are coming out of college with average of $29,000 worth of debt. The fact that the unemployment rate is not lowering, is not going down as fast as it could be. Veterans affairs. Education in general. We're talking about the things that are affecting people's lives and that's not necessarily one of them," Aiken said.
