“Dwight Schrute” Is Running for President

A screengrab of Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute in The Office’s “Conflict Resolution” episode.

Dwight Schrute is running for president.

This isn’t a new Office spinoff, though that might actually be a pretty good idea. (I’d be more likely to watch it than Blindspot.) But if you search various names in the Federal Election Commission’s Candidate and Committee Viewer, you’ll find the most fun stuff. There’s a candidate named Kanye Kanyewhat Deezenutz Westrthose Trump running for president next year. (I think it’s supposed to be “Whatrthose,” but that’s quibbling.)

Essentially, anyone can register to run for president under any name. And one person registered as Dwight Kurt Schrute, a character on The Office television show.

An original filing said the candidate lives in Chandler, Arizona, and is a member of the communist party. At the same time, another statement said Schrute lives in Scranton and resides at the Dunder Mifflin offices at 1725 Slough Ave. (This address is fictional; the “Slough” is a reference to Slough, England, where the original Office was based.) An amended statement filed early this month moved Dwight Schrute’s residence to Nasvhille, Tennessee. Both the Chandler and Nashville address are residential houses, with one or both of them probably the actual address of the person or people who filed.

Emails sent to the “campaign” weren’t returned. But the committee supporting Schrute’s candidacy does have a pretty great name for the beet farmer/paper salesman: Beets International.

Sometimes these fake candidates do make news. A 15-year-old boy registered as Deez Nuts, and Public Policy Polling included him in one of its polls. He finished behind both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but did draw 8 percent of the vote. I figured Dwight Kurt Schrute could at least get 15 percent. Or maybe more! He’s a better-known TV celeb than Trump.