Where Is "Deez Nuts" Now?

In August, I thought that Deez Nuts would've been the strangest thing to happen to the 2016 election cycle. The fake presidential candidate, who ended up being an Iowa teen, became the Internet's clickbait catch of the day for a week or so, birthing tons of memes and poking gentle fun at our increasingly insane election cycle. But now that Donald Trump has become the seemingly inevitable GOP nominee, Deez Nuts is but a distant memory of just previous election hijinks. But as the parody faded and the weirdness of 2016 set in, where is Deez Nutz now? It seems like, unlike the 2016 campaign, everything is pretty normal for the teenager.

In August, Deez Nuts, also known as Brady Olson, launched a viral fake presidential campaign. He ended up endorsing Ohio Gov. John Kasich for the Republican nomination, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democrats. Still, he proved to be prescient back in August, stating that despite his endorsements, he thought that Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would ultimately win their respective party nomination. This was before either of those (well, less so for Clinton) seemed to have the campaign on lockdown, so someone needs to recruit this 16-year old for their think tank, ASAP.

So, what has Olson been up to since his fake presidential campaign took the Internet by storm? He's still supporting Kasich, and he still believes that Clinton and Trump are destined for the primary race ("regretfully," he told Cincinnati.com). In December, he was still supporting the now-defunct campaign of New York Gov. George Pataki because he is a moderate.

His Twitter account is relatively non-functioning, with his last tweet posted in January, when the Bundy family was still protesting in Oregon. And largely, campaign messages of any kind have stopped. The viral push for Deez Nutz 2016, in other words, have largely gone the way of Ben Carson — at first silent, and now completely non-existent.

He has, however, become a kind of local celebrity in Wallingford, Iowa, where he lives on his family's farm. But apparently, the fame from the summer had largely faded by the time the first day of school rolled around. Still, Deez Nutz has a words to the wise in choosing who you will vote for:

"Don't forget that most voters don't make up their minds until two weeks before an election, regardless of previous polls," he wrote in an email to Cincinnati.com. "Get involved. Go out and vote. One vote matters. ... Be informed, don't walk into the polls blindly. Also, vote Deez Nuts."