Antigay Watch List: The Worst Who Want Your Vote

Mark Clayton, U.S. Senate, Tennessee
The lone Democrat on the list and undoubtedly the biggest gadfly, flooring installer Mark Clayton was disowned by the party after his surprising victory in August’s primary, apparently helped by an alphabetical-order ballot. The Democratic leadership’s favorite, Empty Nest actress Park Overall, came in third after a lackluster campaign. The party declined to support Clayton because of his volunteer work with Public Advocate, an antigay organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and suggests that Democrats write in a name in the race against incumbent Republican Bob Corker. And The Washington Post, which has dubbed Clayton “2012’s Worst Candidate,” notes that his “policy ideas set him apart from many other Democrats: He is unusual in opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage, but he’s downright exceptional in saying that the Transportation Security Administration ‘mandates [transsexuals] and homosexuals grabbing children in their stranger-danger zones.’” Politicos and pundits put his chances of winning the election at slim to none, but Clayton has kept the faith, telling the Post, “Jesus did not have a campaign staff. And he had the most successful campaign in human history.”