Chris Stapleton Reveals How He’s Voting This November (Kinda)

Chris Stapleton is quintessentially American — he even calls his tour the All-American Road Show every year — but that doesn’t mean he’s picking a side in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Stapleton fielded a question about which candidate has earned his vote.

“I’m voting for America and a good glass of whiskey,” he shot back.

That response is more than just a throwaway quip. Dig deeper and you’ll see that he values the democratic process, including his freedom to keep his political preferences to himself.

“I’m not saying celebrities shouldn’t endorse people — that’s American,” he reflects. “I also think the right to keep that private, and the right to let politicians be politicians, to let people make their own choices based on what politicians say and do … that’s American, too.”

He also thinks that the values most essential to the American spirit are those aimed at building bridges between all kinds of people, with all kinds of different belief systems.

“American values would be someone who grows up in the city getting to sit down and talk with someone who didn’t, like myself. And then we can still find common ground,” Stapleton relates.

Even though Stapleton doesn’t plan to endorse any specific political party, he’s not shy about speaking up for specific causes that matter to him.

During a 2020 interview on CBS This Morning, Stapleton stated his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, explaining that the downtime during pandemic lockdowns afforded him time to reflect on the state of systemic racism in America.

“There’s a very broad awakening that I guess has come about, and it’s time for me to listen. And it’s time for other folks to listen,” he reflected at the time.

He also shared his rage and horror after the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting, releasing “Watch You Burn” as a letter to gunman Stephen Paddock, and an outlet for all the listeners feeling similar anger.

“It’s important that you write songs sometimes that are timely,” he tells The Guardian. “That’s part of our duty as songwriters, to connect with people in those ways: Anger and frustration.”