Search form

Scroll To Top
Politics

'Tiger King' Joe Exotic, still in prison, quietly ends presidential campaign

Tiger King Joe Exotic mugshot 2024 predidential campaign video
Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office; instagram @joe_exotic

Joe Exotic has seemingly withdrawn himself from the race for president without a word.

Joe Exotic, star of the hit 2020 Netflix docuseries Tiger King, has ended his presidential campaign.

Exotic’s campaign committee, Joseph Maldonado to Free America, filed a termination report with the Federal Election Commission Thursday, Raw Story first reported. The filing reveals that his campaign has just $1,400 left in funding after raising over $16,000.

Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 21-year sentence in a federal prison for his part in a murder-for-hire plot targeting his rival, Carole Baskin. Exotic was detained after offering $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent in exchange for her murder.

Exotic announced on Twitter in March, 2023 that he had filed paperwork to run for president as a Libertarian candidate in 2024, later switching to Democrat. He continued to maintain his innocence, and insisted that he was legally able to campaign from prison.

“Yes, I know I am in Federal Prison and you might think this is a joke but it's not. It is my Constitutional right to do this even from here," Exotic wrote on his campaign website. "Put aside that I am gay, that I am in prison for now, that I used drugs in the past, that I had more than one boyfriend at once, and that Carole hates my guts. This all has not a thing to do with me being able to be your voice."

Exotic was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2021. He stopped treatment in February, 2023, writing in a letter obtained by TMZ that his doctors suspected the cancer was rapidly growing, and he was content "to stay here and just let it take its course." He drafted a new will at the time in which he left everything to his fiancé, Seth Posey.

“I could care less about dying, my birthday is coming up soon and all I want is to see Seth," Exotic wrote.

Exotic's team asked for a lesser sentence of 7.5 years in 2022 on account of his diagnosis, which was denied. Baskin told the judge at the hearing that Exotic "continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me" and that she had continued to receive threatening communications despite his detainment.

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff & Wayne Brady

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Ryan Adamczeski

Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.
Ryan is a reporter at The Advocate, and a graduate of New York University Tisch's Department of Dramatic Writing, with a focus in television writing and comedy. She first became a published author at the age of 15 with her YA novel "Someone Else's Stars," and is now a member of GALECA, the LGBTQ+ society of entertainment critics, and the IRE, the society of Investigative Reporters and Editors. In her free time, Ryan likes watching New York Rangers hockey, listening to the Beach Boys, and practicing witchcraft.