Barry Manilow and Rob Reiner were among those who backed Will Rollins’s unsuccessful campaign.
Following his 1980 debate with Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan was accompanied by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans on a flight to Texas. The stars from Reagan’s Hollywood years participated in our campaign rally and helped wow Lone Star State voters. The political allure of celebrities isn’t new, but through the decades campaigns have grown bigger and flashier. This past election’s glamour was overwhelming. Even Barack and Michelle Obama appeared to shrivel in the shadow of Taylor Swift.
Both during and after the election, the spotlight shined on several prominent names. Oprah Winfrey garnered attention after the Harris campaign paid her production company to host a virtual town hall on the candidate’s behalf. Ellen DeGeneres and Eva Longoria made headlines for leaving the U.S. in the wake of Mr. Trump’s victory—though they may have actually moved for personal reasons unrelated to the election.
More curiously, Ms. Winfrey, Ms. DeGeneres and Ms. Longoria lent their national reputations to try to affect the outcome of a congressional seat in the California desert. They weren’t alone. Joining them were a string of showbiz elites: Steven Spielberg, George Takei, Rhea Perlman, Bradley Whitford, Judith Light and Barry Manilow. What possible interest would they have in an obscure congressional seat?
The target was 16-term Rep. Ken Calvert, the publicity-shy and workmanlike dean of the California Republican delegation, whose U.S. House seat the Democratic leadership had labeled ripe for flipping from red to blue. As a Politico newsletter pointed out, “it was redrawn as a purple battleground during California’s last redistricting process (and) now encompasses the deep-blue, LGBTQ-friendly desert oasis of Palm Springs, as well as the conservative suburbs of Riverside County, east of Los Angeles.”
To draw Hollywood’s attention and money into this remote desert outpost, Democrats needed a gerrymandered candidate to fit the gerrymandered 41st Congressional District. The perfect carpetbagger was Will Rollins, who rented a voting residence in Palm Springs 120 miles away from the coastal home of record he shared with his partner. Mr. Rollins had already lost one race to Mr. Calvert, in 2022. But this time, Democrats put their full force behind him. Mr. Rollins bore the manufactured title “counterterrorism attorney” (which a California court rejected as misleading), and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar called Mr. Rollins a “prizefighter” and the “best candidate we have in the country.”
Mr. Manilow hosted a fundraiser at his Palm Spring home. Director Rob Reiner collaborated with Nancy Pelosi to harvest funds, and Mr. Whitford touted the candidate on X. With this high-powered help, Politico boosted Mr. Rollins as a “now-rising star.”
By designating yet another poster pinup contender, the Democrats merely reprised a recognizable script straight from their out-of-touch woke bubble. Stacey Abrams is a perfect example: She wowed fawning progressives, but she failed twice for Georgia governor, in 2018 and 2022, by running to the left of voters. Liberals were also smitten by Texas’ Beto O’Rourke, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2018 and whose fundraising ability wasn’t hurt by praise from Willie Nelson, Ms. Longoria, Ms. DeGeneres and Beyoncé. Though he lost, he tried again in 2022—this time for governor—and was trounced.
Back to Rollins vs. Calvert. The Democrats apparently thought they could reverse the losing trend by sending this tired playbook westward. As a gay man, Mr. Rollins offered the cultural diversity that enchants Hollywood’s left wing, and it was enough to make the entertainment industry feel good about supporting his second shot at Mr. Calvert. After Mr. Rollins spent roughly $3.5 million and lost by about 11,000 votes in 2022, Democrats left nothing to chance this year.
In the end, the Tinseltown sparkle helped fuel a bombardment of more than $20 million against Mr. Calvert, making it one of the most expensive House races in the country. Despite the cavalcade of red-carpet walkers and Washington power brokers, it turned out to be a production even Mr. Spielberg couldn’t pull off. While California’s snail-paced vote count isn’t quite done, Mr. Calvert is projected to win by about 12,000 votes, and the Democrats will begin the search for another “rising star.” Showbiz will have to wait for its next promotional play because, like so many of its expensive blockbusters, this one turned out to be a box-office flop.
Mr. Khachigian was chief speechwriter to Ronald Reagan and is author of the memoir “Behind Closed Doors: In the Room With Reagan and Nixon.”
