“If you don’t set huge goals for yourself, no one else will."
Once Bobby Bones conquers the ballroom on Dancing With the Stars, he plans to turn his focus in a totally different direction -- politics.
ET caught up with the 38-year-old radio host and his partner, Sharna Burgess, ahead of next week’s Halloween-themed dance, where Bones discussed his political aspirations.
“I’ll be the governor of Arkansas, for sure,” he told ET’s Katie Krause. “I thought about running in 2018, but maybe 2022. Probably 2026. I do believe that I will be the governor of my home state of Arkansas.”
Once he takes up residence in the Governor’s Mansion -- and relocates back to Arkansas from his current home in Nashville, Tennessee -- Bones knows what he wants to work to change.
“I grew up with very little, and my education was terrible, so what I want to do is fix impoverished places and fix the education systems,” he said. “I believe if you can learn, you can actually go and achieve, so that’s really the core of what I want to help. There's a lot that I see, but what's my focus is finding people that come from not a lot and showing them that there's a way out.”
As for what comes after state-level politics, Bones is already looking ahead -- straight to the White House.
“I will run for governor. Hopefully I’ll be president. That's the plan,” he said. “If you don’t set huge goals for yourself, no one else will, so I have the biggest goals.”
Burgess is all for Bones’ ambitions, telling her partner, “I’m all for it. I’ll run the campaign.”
“I can give you your citizenship, then I’ll just go, ‘Here you go,’” Bones offered in return.
“You'd do that?” the 33-year-old dancer questioned. “There we go! Now I’m definitely all for it.”
Before any elections can be won, though, Burgess and Bones are focused on securing the mirrorball on DWTS. On next week’s Halloween-themed episode, the duo is set to dance to “Mr. Sandman.”
“I came across this really creepy version of the song and I kind of just fell in love with it,” Burgess explained. “I decided that it was time for Bobby to do a whole other character. We've seen him have so much fun. We’ve also seen him get emotional. Now it's time to get a little bit twisted.”
Though Bones hasn’t mastered the dance yet -- he said he’s usually not ready until “Monday right before we go on” -- he’s working hard to embody the strong, sexy character it requires.
“I’m still so confused by the whole thing. It's very strong and, like, sexy -- it's the two things I’m not,” he joked. “I'm still learning. It's tough.”
For Burgess, though, it’s all about proving to Bones what he’s capable of. “I wanna do them 'cause I think he has it in him,” she said. “He just doesn’t believe it, so I just wanna prove to him that he does.”
Even with pushing Bones outside of his comfort zone, Burgess is all about highlighting her partner’s strengths, and not his weaknesses.
“Lift[ing] isn’t our strong suit in this competition,” she confessed. “... When you have people like DeMarcus and Lindsay that he can literally spin her on his pinky finger.”
“What Bobby and I have, though, is an amazing chemistry,” she added of their own strong suit. “We’re gonna be able to play this story and these characters really, really well because it does have a sexiness to it too.”
Bones may not be completely confident yet about how successful their upcoming dance will be -- he joked that he’ll go easier on himself “when I die” -- but his partner is always there to encourage him.
“[She’s a] therapist slash dance coach slash whatever else,” Bones praised.
Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Check out the video below for more on the dancing duo:
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