Ever since former Godfather Pizza chief Herman Cain joined the presidential race, Republicans have been heading towards becoming the “Pizza Party,” and now House Republicans are taking that one step further. At an annual policy retreat in Williamsburg, Va., GOP lawmakers are looking to Domino’s Pizza CEO J. Patrick Doyle to help inspire the party. He’s hosting a presentation called “Turning it Around.“
But this isn’t the first evidence of a deep-dish connection between pizza and the GOP.
It all started when Herman Cain briefly became the frontrunner in the GOP primary, and he wowed crowds with his singing and penchant for cowboy hats. He won even more hearts when a video emerged of him singing the classic tune “Imagine there’s no pizza.” But ultimately Republicans couldn’t imagine him as the leader of their party.
Pizza was the power-meal of choice when GOP top dog Sarah Palin took her family on a Super-PAC funded bus trip to meet with Donald Trump. The pizza summit was an obvious choice, even if it was eaten with a knife and fork.
House Republicans also used pizza to give a whole new meaning to the phrase “eat your vegetables.” After the USDA tried to make school lunches healthier, the GOP pushed to keep classifying the tomato sauce on pizza as a vegetable.
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter helped bring in the big bucks for Mitt Romney during the campaign. He eventually made headlines for complaining that implementing the Affordable Care Act would cost 10 to 14 cents per pie. After the election, he tried to downplay the controversial remarks, writing that the health care law would get all his workers health insurance and “I’m cool with that.”
But as Republicans try to rebuild their party, they may be better off swallowing a slice of humble pie than offering the same cheesy ideas.
Ellen Burke