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Stephen Colbert Senate Groundswell Continues

If Palmetto State voters had their way, satirical newsman and South Carolina native Stephen Colbert would be their new senator, according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling.

A whopping 20 percent of South Carolina voters would like to see Colbert appointed to the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who announced last week that he is resigning to head up the Heritage Foundation.

stephen colbert, south carolina senator?
Stephen Colbert, shown here at the Federal Election Commission offices in 2011, is no stranger to the Capitol. (File photo by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki R. Haley, who has the power to appoint a politician to fill DeMint’s vacant seat, has already hinted that Colbert has no shot of getting the spot, even though he expressed his interest in the seat on his show last Thursday.

In a Friday update on Haley’s official Facebook page, Haley posted a clip of an interview she participated in on Colbert’s show, where he couldn’t name South Carolina’s official drink: milk.

“Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me,” Haley wrote. “But you forget one thing, my friend. You didn’t know our state drink. Big, big mistake.”

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