Former Trump adviser trying to get Hulk Hogan to step into political ring: report

Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, is reportedly being courted to run for U.S. Senate in Florida. (Reuters)

A former adviser to President Trump is reportedly trying to entice professional wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan to run for U.S. Senate in Florida.

Roger Stone said in an interview with Republican consultant Patrick Slevin on Tuesday that he has been focused on persuading Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, to run for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson’s seat.

“At a minimum, I hope to convince Hogan to body slam (Gov. Rick) Scott in every debate,” he said. “If the governor is under the impression that his personal responsibility for $1 billion in Medicaid fraud is no longer an issue, he’s wrong.”

Hogan would presumably challenge Scott in the Republican primary. Stone didn’t say whether Hogan was seriously entertaining the idea.

Roger Stone, a former adviser to President Trump, said he's trying to pull Hogan into the political ring. (Reuters)

Hogan, who lives in Clearwater, has never run for public office. The closest he came was when he declared his candidacy for president in 1998, according to Bleacher Report. The campaign turned out to be a wrestling storyline used for World Championship Wrestling.

Hogan has supported Barack Obama in 2008 and then turned to support candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, according to Politico.

Hogan was purportedly caught on tape in 2015 using racial epithets to describe his daughter’s boyfriend, and then said he was “a racist to a point,” according to the New York Daily News. He was also banned from appearing on WWE television after the audio surfaced.

Hogan defended himself in an interview with Fox News in 2016, saying that he was not a racist and that over time he hopes to “win people back.”