Stripper Named Viva Las Vegas Is Running For Mayor In Portland

If you're looking for something interesting out of a mayoral race, Portland, Oregon has you covered. They aren’t trotting out your run of the mille cookie cutter candidates.

That's not going to fly in "The City of Roses." I can’t tell you which of the candidates is leading the race, but I can tell you that one of them is a stripper.

She's not a former stripper, which could slightly shift the vote in her favor, but who knows, it's Portland, they just might elect Liv Osthus, also known as Viva Las Vegas.

Her bio on Instagram says she's a stripper, an artist, a writer, a musician, a mom, and a muse. With a bio like that, no wonder she's running for mayor. Still not sold? Let's take a look at what she's running on.

According to her website, Viva is concerned about the future of her city. She welcomes visitors by mentioning, "This is a critical time in Portland’s history. We are suffering from a lack of compassionate leadership and vision. It’s time for that to change."

Her mission drives that home as she reveals that she plans to use mother earth to get things done while in office. Her mission statement starts off by saying, "Protecting, honoring, and listening to Mama Earth is Liv’s top priority, because, ultimately every conversation—be it about housing justice, about re-energizing creative communities, about empowering small businesses—has to begin and end with our beautiful planet."

A stripper running for mayor in Portland isn't as crazy as it sounds

Viva Las Vegas isn't pretending to run for office either. She's received enough support to find herself up on the debate stage where she's battled it out with a candidate who has 150 parking and traffic tickets.

Now you could find yourself with the urge to poke fun at that, but this is no laughing matter. As you can see in the clip of Viva answering a question during the debate, she's taking her run for mayor very seriously.

Look, you might disagree with everything she had to say there, but you can’t argue with her delivery. She has a plan and isn't spewing out word salad answers.

That can't be said for all of our political leaders.

Is she going to be the next mayor of Portland? The people will decide that. Portland is the strip club capital of the United States, so Viva Las Vegas' chances of being elected are slightly better than zero.