GOP strategists say the celebrity attention may inspire a backlash among Republican voters.
Georgia Democrats are wishing upon the stars, and daring to dream that a little Hollywood magic will help them flip two U.S. Senate seats in January’s runoff elections.
Celebrity actors and musicians such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Legend, Patton Oswalt, and Mark Hamill have been active on social media urging Georgians to vote for Democrats John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the elections, which will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate for at least the next two years. And Hollywood hotshots are hosting and participating in several virtual concerts and TV reunion live-streams to raise money for Democratic voter-registration groups.
Democratic activists are hoping the star power will inspire their voters to turn out for what are expected to be two tight races.
“I believe very much in the power of celebrity to cut through the noise of politics,” Georgia voting-rights activist Stacey Abrams said during a Q&A for her recently released documentary film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But Republican strategists say that all the celebrities injecting themselves into the races will help create contrasts between the Democrats and Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
“It helps us further define the race between what we would like to call Georgia values and Hollywood values or Washington values,” said Chip Lake, a Republican campaign strategist in Georgia, which has become a popular filming location in part due to generous tax incentives.
On Sunday, the cast of the critically acclaimed HBO satire Veep is reuniting for a “virtual table read for Georgia,” with proceeds going to the progressive America Votes organization. For $30, fans can watch as the show’s cast, including Louis-Dreyfus and guest stars such as Stephen Colbert and Hamill, recreate an Emmy-winning episode about stopping a ballot recount.
It won’t be Hamill’s only guest appearance on a reunion show benefiting Georgia Democrats. He and Seth Rogen were special guests for a November 29, reunion of the cast of the cult comedy The Wrong Guy, benefiting the Georgia Democratic Senate campaigns.
“If you love comedy & hate Mitch McConnell this is THE event for YOU,” Hamill tweeted.
There are at least two virtual benefits scheduled for Thursday night.
The “Rock the Runoff Virtual Concert,” hosted by Kerry Washington, is promoting performances by Legend, Justin Timberlake, Ludacris, and Michael Stipe from R.E.M., among others. The concert is benefitting Abrams’s Fair Fight political action committee.
The second fundraiser on Thursday is being co-hosted by Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, and Billy Eichner, featuring a performance from Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. That event is benefitting the progressive political group Swing Left.
And in mid November, a group of Hollywood producers hosted a benefit for Ossoff and Warnock that raised “nearly $2 million,” according to an NBC News reporter.
That may sound like a lot of money, and it is, but also consider that more than a quarter of a billion dollars has already been spent for the runoff elections, according to AdImpact, a national ad tracking firm.
“When the dust settles on the total spend on these races in the runoff, I think it will exceed $500 million. That is a staggering amount of money over a nine-week period,” said Lake, the Georgia Republican strategist. “All of this money, if it’s not in parity, it will be close to parity. I think we’re getting close to the point of diminishing returns.”
Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said the concentration of celebrity attention on one state election is unusual, but only because of the unusually high stakes of two races in one state that will determine control of the entire Senate.
Celebrities can have an impact mobilizing supporters and inspiring new voters, he said. But they also could motivate Republican voters who don’t like “the Hollywood set coming to Georgia, trying to tell Georgia voters what to do,” he said.
“Will they have some influence? Yeah, I think. Will it be decisive to winning and losing, based on previous races all across the country? Probably not,” Jewett said. “And will their influence always be positive? Probably not. Some voters are going to be turned off by it.”
Republicans are looking forward to a little star power of their own coming to Georgia, with President Donald Trump expected to rally with Perdue and Loeffler this weekend.
Trump’s involvement with the races is important, because run-off elections are all about turning out the base, Lake said. Whichever party does a better job getting its base voters to the polls will probably win.
“Whether or not you like Donald Trump, what’s hard to argue about is he’s the best there has ever been that I’ve seen in the office of the president as far as being able to turn out the base,” Lake said. “We welcome the president down here as much as he’s willing to come down, because he fires people up, gets people excited.”