Perez Hilton gets political

Perez Hilton has built an online empire, but the blogger says he has no plans to turn his virtual Midas touch toward a political website endeavor.

“I could [create one] but I think it’s more impactful to talk about politics on my main website … I get a lot of [website visitors] saying, ‘Don’t talk about politics.’ But I’ll talk about things that matter to me, whether that be political issues, social issues, gay issues, whatever it may be.”

Hilton teamed up with Rock the Vote and Pringles for Tuesday’s Turn up the Vote event at Mez in downtown Charlotte, N.C. “I’m here for selfish reasons — I get to talk about what matters to me,” says the 34-year-old Hilton, who was born Mario Lavandeira.

Two years ago, Hilton softened the tone of his famously snarky site, saying he wanted to raise awareness about teen suicides and gay bullying.

While he says politicians could also take on a kinder attitude toward one another, he has other ideas for improving the political system, telling us, “I think we need multiple viable parties so people can have real options, so that real change can hopefully come as a result of that. Like, wouldn’t it be great if a high-ranking Democrat and a high-ranking Republican ran in the next election and won with some other party, and they helped really bring people together? That would be awesome.”

Hilton, who is openly gay and a strong proponent of gay rights, says he plans on casting a vote for President Obama come November. But he’s already looking past this election to 2016. 

Calling himself a huge Hillary Clinton fan, he says, “Even though she says she’s not going to run, I think she will anyways. I will be supporting her both financially and with my voice, definitely.”

Don’t expect him to jumping from the blogosphere to the campaign trail. He wouldn’t say never to running for public office, but concedes, “What’s important for me is to work hard but also to have fun. I don’t think being a politician would be fun.”