Kanye West isn’t the only left-field celebrity making a third-party run for president in 2020. Brock Pierce, who is perhaps best known for starring in the Disney movie First Kid, has filed with the FEC to run as an independent candidate.
Pierce played the titular role in 1996’s First Kid, starring opposite Sinbad. Pierce also portrayed a young Gordon Bombay in the first two Mighty Ducks movies, and starred in a Gushers commercial.
At the age of 17, Pierce retired from acting and helped launch a video streaming service. He later started a series of internet gaming websites, at one point recruiting Steve Bannon as a venture capitalist. More recently, he got involved in cryptocurrency and rolled out his own blockchain, making a fortune in the process.
However, Pierce’s career has also been dogged by allegations involving sexual misconduct. In 2000, he was accused by three former employees of providing them with drugs and pressuring them for sex when they were boys. Two years later, while staying at a Spanish villa with two business partners, Interpol conducted a raid and found guns, machetes, and child pornography on the property. Pierce also had a few run-ins with Jeffrey Epstein over the years.
For his part, Pierce was never charged with any crime and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Of the three former employees who sued him, he struck a settlement with one, while the two others dismissed their cases after recanting their allegations. Nevertheless, following a 2018 segment on HBO’s Last Week Tonight highlighting his controversial past, Pierce was forced step down as head of his crypto company.
Now, Pierce is hoping to return to the White House, albeit in a non-fiction capacity, with a platform centered around job creation, the creation of a digital currency, and technological innovation. Pierce formally announced his candidacy on July 5th, and filed with the FEC two days later (something Kanye West has yet to do himself). Below, watch Pierce’s announcement video, along with the aforementioned Last Week Tonight segment.
