'Kissing Congressman' Makes Ballot, Faces 'Duck Dynasty' Snub
He faces a challenge from a "Duck Dynasty" candidate.
— -- Louisiana's "Kissing Congressman" Vance McAllister, seeking a political rebound after he was caught on a surveillance video kissing a staffer, qualified to be on the ballot today, but he also got a challenge from the “Ducky Dynasty” family that helped him get elected in the first place.
cheating on his wife following the release of a surveillance video that showed him kissing a staffer, qualified to be on the ballot on Friday.
The Republican congressman for Louisiana’s 5th District was supposed to qualify on Thursday, but missed his time slot because he said he was stuck in traffic, arriving at the Secretary of State’s office after it had already closed for the day.
"We were coming down yesterday and traffic was backed up in Baton Rouge," McAllister told ABC News. “It was bumper to bumper stand-still for over an hour.”
Today is the last day in a three-day qualifying period that requires all candidates seeking public office in Louisiana to file the necessary paperwork.
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After qualifying for the ballot in the morning, McAllister donned a New Orleans Saints jersey and was doused with a bucket of icy water, joining in what has become a viral campaign to raise money for research and awareness of ALS.
“I chose today after the close of my qualifying,” McAllister said. “I thought it was fitting to do it down there with my Saints jersey on.”
McAllister’s participation in the ALS challenge came just days after House ethics rules warned members of Congress that their participation in the charitable challenge could be an ethics violation.
“No doubt, this is for an admirable cause. There is a prohibition in the Members Handbook and in the Ethics Manual on the use of official resources for the promotion or benefit of any private charitable cause,” The House Administration Committee told members in an email obtained by Politico.
While members are forbidden from posting the videos to their official accounts, personal and campaign accounts are permitted.
McAllister has not posted a video to any of his official accounts.
Though McAllister didn’t qualify as planned on Thursday, his “Duck Dynasty” challenger Zach Dasher did. Dasher is the nephew of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson.
“It was a surreal experience. I had my whole family there,” Dasher told ABC News of qualifying for the ballot, but adding jokingly that it was his 8-year-old son Max who stole the show.
“He told me that he wants to run for office someday,” Dasher said. “I am against career politicians, but I think my son Max might be a career politician someday.”
Robertson endorsed McAllister’s candidacy in last year’s special election, but this year he is trying to defeat McAllister and elect his nephew instead.
“He is going to be very involved,” Dasher said of his uncle Phil. “But being related to Phil doesn’t make me qualified to be the next congressman. What it does is it gives me this platform to promote that our rights do not come from man, they come from God... I’m someone who will fight to dismantle the federal takeover of state rights and restore God back to government.”
Though the endorsement is an outright rejection of McAllister as a politician by the Robertson clan, the congressman said he’s not taking it personally and still considers the family his friends.
“They are supporting a family member,” McAllister said. “They wouldn’t be the family I know them to be if they didn’t support a family member. So, there are no hard feelings whatsoever.”
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