Afroman Is Running for President

Afroman is bouncing back after Ohio law enforcement filed a lawsuit against him. In time for 4/20, the “Because I Got High” rapper, legal name Joseph Edgar Foreman, has filed the documents with the Federal Elections Commission to officially run for U.S. President in 2024.

Back in December, the 48-year-old rapper announced at a concert in Missouri his plans to run for POTUS. For his planned election, Foreman seeks to emphasize the national legalization of marijuana.

"Afroman’s ongoing persecution by the overtly corrupt Adams County Sheriff’s Department perfectly highlights that this corruption of leadership has trickled down to law enforcement all across the country,” Savage told TMZ.

He continued, “Criminal Justice Reform and Federal Marijuana Legalization remain two of the primary planks in his campaign platform. We are asking for your support as Afroman takes on this great and worthy cause as our Cannabis Commander in Chief."

Despite the presidential move, Foreman still faces some legal trouble. This week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief – a court petition to submit a brief with the intention of influencing the court’s decision in a trial from a party who is not involved – on Foreman’s behalf.

The move comes after the Ohio police officers who raided Foreman’s home on suspicion of drug trafficking and kidnapping (finding no incriminating evidence), claim that they were humiliated by the rapper using footage from the raid in several music videos. The visuals promoted his 2022 album Lemon Pound Cake,  and featured clips of Officer Shawn D. Cooley, former candidate for Adams County Sheriff and the lead plaintiff in the case, in the album’s titular video. 

The ACLU states that Cooley and his co-plaintiffs are “alleging various torts in connection with the use of their images from the security footage” with demands of “damages from Mr. Foreman, as well as an injunction to stop speaking about and using images of them.”

In the brief, the ACLU calls the case a case as “a classic entry into the SLAPP suit genre: a meritless effort to use a lawsuit to silence criticism. And not just any criticism, but criticism specifically of government actors.”