A Tennessee man has announced he is running for governor in the Republican primary after the state refused to return his pet raccoon.

Mark “Coonrippy” Brown, a licensed firearm dealer, told The Tennessean that his bid for office was “all about the raccoon.”

Videos of the 56 year old showering and dancing with his pet raccoon, Rebekah, have gone viral over the last year.

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But in August, Rebekah was accused of attacking chickens at a local high school and was seized the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Brown has been fighting for her ever since, even being featured on CNN host Anderson Cooper’s RidicuList.

According to Brown, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam refused to accept his petition — with over 60,000 signatures — asking for a permit to keep Rebekah.

“Gov. Haslam ignored the cries from the entire United States,” he explained. “He can free prisoners, he can pardon people, but he refused the online petition and refused to accept the letter… All eyes were on Tennessee and it made us look bad. It made it look like we were under Caesar’s law.”

“We’ve got to take this country back one state at a time,” Brown vowed. “We live in the United States of the Offended — not the United States of America.”

Brown has until April 3 to meet the filing deadline for state races.

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