The 'ShamWow Guy' is running for Congress: Learn about Offer Vince's anti-woke campaign

You probably know him as the guy with the ShamWow towels, or the face of Slap Chop cookware. His name is Offer Vince Shlomi, and before long you might see him on the Republican bench in Congress.

Shlomi, 61, filed papers last week to compete for Texas' 31st district. The seat is currently held by John Carter, an 84-year-old political veteran who will seek to retake the office.

A firmly Republican district, so if he secures the primary Offer Vince could move from commercials to Congress. However, unseating Carter seems an uphill task: he won the 2024 primary with 65% of the vote, the 2022 primary with 71% and the 2020 primary with 82%.

Born in Israel in 1964, Shlomi rose to fame for his promotional videos on television. The best known was for ShamWow superabsorbent wipes. "You'll say 'wow' every time you use this towel!" became his catchphrase beyond the energetic, charismatic and humorous advertising - "made in Germany, you know the Germans always make good stuff."

He turned his personal style to other products, such as the aforementioned Slap Chop and the Schticky, a washable lint roller. He is also founder and CEO of Square One Entertainment, a California-based product promotion and distribution company.

According to the company's website, Vince Offer is "is the talent and writer of his own infomercials." "Vince’s infomercials are known to be more aggressive, in an agreeable manner, than his contemporaries," it claims, asserting that his "style" made him a "a household name in North America."

The company doesn't just offer the products on TV: "Vince Offer also directly identifies products, negotiates with suppliers, establishes the supply chain, call centres, distribution, and delivery of the products."

IMDB also lists a film appearance as a director and actor in InAPPropriate Comedy (2013), Jack and His Twin (2011) and The Underground Comedy Movie (1999).

ShamWow's political platform of sorts (in development)

Offer Vince promises to bring his enthusiastic, direct and humorous style to the campaign trail. Combined, too, with some polemic: "The woke churches are after our kids's nut* no more... not chopping nut* no more," he said in a video recorded after filing paperwork to compete. "You're gonna love your nut* with the ShamWow Guy."

Shortly before applying, he had uploaded a music video disguised as a Woke Buster, in play on the famous Ghostbusters franchise.

The now-congressional hopeful assured Time magazine that he was working on his anti-woke satire of the famous film when he learned of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a death that served as the "catalyst" for his campaign. "He is a woke buster," he said of Kirk. "I felt like I have Charlie Kirk’s spirit in me, in a sense—or near me. It’s drawn me to do this."

In the Current Revolt podcast he also claimed he decided to take the plunge because one platform (he didn't specify which one) had begun censoring some of his content. "What do I got to do, sue this guys for 20 years? No, I'll be a congressman... I'll bring a bill to have open source code so that everyone can see what the algorithm says."

"My whole thing is bringing back reality to America," he also said. "That's my slogan."

When asked about his most controversial opinion, he named two proposals on childhood: the Pledge of Allegiance should be in every classroom, especially in elementary school, and video surveillance systems in classrooms, so that "hate or LGBT causes" are not taught.

On his more left-leaning stance: "I just think every religion to me is on our side, because if they believe in God, to me that's the most important thing. The people who don't believe in God are the wokesters, and the people pushing the kids to not believe in God."

He proposed a new response after the interviewer retorted that religion was conservative: "So I guess the liberal thing is me saying the gaza kids shouldn't be in that collateral damage."

His draft, if it gets to Congress: "We end the infighting [destroying wokism], make america strong again and bring reality back and then we can go to help other countries, like Afghanistan."

For this, he says, his salesmanship skills will be essential.