4. November 6, 2012: Linda McMahon Loses Election Bid
In 2009, Linda McMahon left WWE after nearly thirty years to pursue a career in politics. Running for the position of Republican Senator for the state of Connecticut, McMahon spent $50 million of her own money, allegedly to prevent having to accept donations from special interest groups. She lost that election to Richard Blumenthal. Her second attempt at politics was in 2012, when she put her name for candidacy in the 2012 general election, also for Senator, and also a loss, but this time to Democratic candidate Chris Murphy. When combined with her loss in 2010, Linda had spent $97 million on her campaigns. The McMahons had spent a lot of time, money and effort on those campaigns. WWE allegedly went PG for the purpose of alleviating concerned family groups in her home state, yet her opponents continuously criticized her involvement in many of WWEs most notorious segments, especially the Trish Stratus barking like a dog segment. WWE also tried to convince its audience to support Linda indirectly through the ill-fated stand up for WWE campaign, which also failed to do anything but garner more criticism towards WWE. In the end, some four years of work and almost $100 million later, Linda had failed to get into office. Vince must certainly be haunted by the day his wife lost after putting so much effort into her candidacy.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
