Imagine a Clown for President

Russell Greenbeaux is “an extremely tall man in a clown outfit with a shock of bright-green hair.” He’s also a third-party presidential candidate. Shades of Election 2024? Only time will tell. But this vivid Clown Party candidate ran for office in 2015’s Greenbeaux, a satirical novel penned by Wordsmithie Chief Strategy Officer David Bergheim (FTB Press, LLC, 2015). 

Born into a political family, David grew up inside the Beltway and was put to work knocking on doors and handing out campaign leaflets as a child. With an MBA from Yale University, he built his career in university marketing and business administration. He teamed up with his sister, Wordsmithie Founder and CEO Laura Bergheim (who is also a novelist), to help run the company in 2014. The following year, he published his debut novel, in which Greenbeaux runs for the highest office in the land to fight for clown rights (and, by subtle comparison, all those who lack wider representation).  

Named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2015, Greenbeaux appeals to a populace weary of partisan politics and sick of “those clowns in Washington.” The book’s Twitter feed, Breaking Clown News, gained steam during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with 60K followers at its peak. 

David has helped grow Wordsmithie into a successful content marketing agency, supporting technology companies such as Google, Palo Alto Networks, and NetApp with email campaigns, case studies, white papers, UX content, and more. As to whether David will pen a Greenbeaux sequel, he says, “I have ideas for a second Greenbeaux, but I will probably wait a while to write it. After the events of the last few years, I’m a little burned out on all the clowns in politics.”