Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said he was approached at the end of 2022 to run for president.
“I got a visit from the parties asking me if I was going to run,” he said on Trevor Noah’s new podcast.
A 2021 poll suggested that 46% of US adults would back Johnson if he campaigned for the Oval Office.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said he was approached at the end of 2022 to run for president.
Sitting down with comedian Trevor Noah as the inaugural guest on his new Spotify podcast, “What Now? with Trevor Noah,” Johnson discussed a potential future in politics after Noah brought up a 2021 poll that suggested that 46% of US adults would back the former WWE champion if he campaigned for the Oval Office.
“That was an interesting poll that happened and I was really moved by that. I was really blown away and I was really honored,” Johnson, 51, said.
“I’ll share this little bit with you: at the end of the year in 2022, I got a visit from the parties asking me if I was going to run, and if I could run,” he added, though he did not identify which political parties had reached out.
“It was a big deal, and it came out of the blue,” Johnson continued. “It was one after the other, and they brought up that poll, and they also brought up their own deep-dive research.”
The “Black Adam” star added that the point of the research was to “prove” to Johnson that he would have a fighting chance of winning against his opponents “should I ever decide to go down that road” and move forward with a presidential bid.
“It was all very surreal because that’s never been my goal. My goal has never been to be in politics and, as a matter of fact, there’s a lot about politics that I hate,” Johnson said.
The actor said that after representatives from the unnamed political parties came knocking, he had to “double down” on his commitment to raising his family, which he previously told CBS News in October 2022 was the reason running for president was “off the table.”
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The “Fast and Furious” star is a father of three. He has two daughters, Tiana Johnson, 5, and Jasmine Johnson, 7, with his wife, Lauren Hashian, and is also father to 22-year-old Simone Johnson, whom he shares with his ex-wife and manager, Dany Garcia.
“With my 22-year-old daughter, Simone, we like to say that we grew up together,” he told Noah. “I know what it’s like to be in an occupation that took me away. As a pro wrestler full-time, I was wrestling 230 dates a year for years as she came into the world.”
“So I know what it’s like to have that separation and not be there for the birthdays, for the pickups, the drop-offs, and everything else,” Johnson continued. “And I don’t want that for my little ones now.”
“So that was one of my primary discussions with the parties, who were ultimately like, ‘Yeah, but the other ones have done it like this,'” he added.
However, Johnson said he isn’t ruling out a future in politics.
“If that’s ultimately what the people would want, then of course I would consider it,” said the star.
Johnson, who described himself as a “political independent” and “centrist” in a 2020 post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, first expressed interest in taking his talents to the White House in 2016.
In a 2021 Instagram post responding to the results of the aforementioned poll — which surveyed more than US 30,000 adults — Johnson wrote: “I don’t think our Founding Fathers EVER envisioned a six-four, bald, tattooed, half-Black, half-Samoan, tequila drinking, pick up truck driving, fanny pack wearing guy joining their club — but if it ever happens it’d be my honor to serve you, the people.”
