First lady Jill Biden hosted a fundraiser in Hollywood last month. Roughly 80 people were in attendance and tickets ranged from $1,000 to $47,900, plus, the option of a photo op with the first lady for more money.
“Optimism, that’s what drives my husband and nothing can slow him down,” she told attendees. “Joe is ready, as he likes to say, to finish the job.”
But President Joe Biden's age has drawn criticism as he sets his eyes on the 2024 election while managing his presidential duties. He celebrated his 80th birthday last year, making him the oldest sitting U.S. president.
Maybe that’s why his campaign tapped Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul who has led Walt Disney and DreamWorks, to help spruce up Biden’s image.
He was named one of the national co-chairs of Biden’s campaign, which isn’t surprising since Katzenberg is also one of the Democratic Party’s top fundraisers.
The Hollywood executive shared his ideas for Biden’s reelection campaign in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. He said he thinks Biden should “lean into his longevity as a sign of wisdom and experience while offering a sense of humor about it,” just like the 80-year-old Harrison Ford.
Ford, who endorsed Biden in 2020, has continued to appear on the big and small screen, whether it’s his 10-episode Apple TV+ show “Shrinking” with Jason Segel or the fifth installment of the 42-year-old franchise, “Indiana Jones” — proving that he hasn’t lost his charm.
Still, Biden’s age is perceived as a problem among voters. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that 37% of Democratic and Independent voters said Biden’s age makes them less likely to vote for him, while 56% said it didn’t make a difference and 3% said it makes them more likely to vote for Biden.
Former President Donald Trump, Biden’s top GOP challenger for 2024, is only three years younger than Biden, but his age isn’t on top of mind for voters, unlike his legal troubles.
It appears Katzenberg is determined to change that. Actor George Clooney, a known Democrat, hailed Katzenberg’s accomplishments as a storyteller and said his unwavering determination is a “good thing” for the Biden campaign.
“I always just say, look, everybody keeps coming into Hollywood for cash, and they don’t come to us for the one thing we do better than anybody, which is tell stories,” Clooney told the Journal. “And so I think it’s probably a very good idea that they’re going to Jeffrey not just for raising money, but for narratives. And I think that’s a very good thing. Jeffrey, he’s a dog with a bone and he doesn’t let go.”
In May, Katzenberg, a billionaire, told the Financial Times he would give Biden “all the resources” to win reelection in 2024, which he described as not a sprint but a “19-month marathon.”
The president’s experience heading into the race is advantageous as well, according to Katzenberg.
“Biden has been a ‘boots on the ground, shaking hands, meeting people politician’ for four to five decades — he loves campaigning and loves connecting with people,” he said.
It isn’t just Clooney and Katzenberg who are Democrats in the Hollywood circles.
The entertainment industry donated nearly $57 million to federal campaigns and committees in the 2022 midterms — with 87% of the contributions ending up in the pockets of Democrats.
Historian and professor Steven Ross, who has authored many books on the industry like “Hollywood Left and Right,” suggested that the Hollywood celebrities’ liberal leanings “can be partially understood as a byproduct of the demands of their craft. Playing a variety of characters, many of whom they did not necessarily like, fostered a sense of empathy and ability to understand issues and people outside their personal experience.”
Some big names, like actor Jeff Goldblum and late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel, have loaned their celebrity to Democratic political campaigns in the past.
“The future of our country and democracy would depend on the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections,” wrote Goldblum in a U.S. Senate campaign email for Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who was running against GOP’s Mehmet Oz, aka Dr. Oz, the famous television host.
Oz gained prominence after appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s show in the early 2000s, but Winfrey gave her endorsement to the Democrat — Fetterman.
In the 2016 election, 80% of the $84 million in campaign contributions from Hollywood went to Democrats, led by donations to Hillary Clinton. The likes of Jennifer Lopez, the Kardashians, LeBron James, and Beyoncé featured their support for Clinton in their social media posts with the caption #ImWithHer. Will Ferrell in a campaign video for Clinton said, “If you don’t vote, everyone might find out that you’re the opposite of on fleek.”
“Or that you’re basic, or even worse that you’ve got no chill.”
He talked about the importance of voting, but ultimately Ferrell and countless other celebrities couldn’t push Clinton over the finish line.
Ronnie Cho, a political strategist who has previously served as a chief executive at MTV and an associate director at the White House, said that the current media environment makes it tough for voters to pay attention to one news source or celebrity.
“A healthy skepticism young people have for people telling them what to do and telling them how to think that makes it harder for even the most followed person on Twitter, like Katy Perry, to turn out people to vote,” Cho said.
That, however, wasn’t the case for former President Barack Obama. Winfrey influenced nearly 1 million voters to vote for him, a 2008 study estimated.
Yet Michael Cobb, associate professor of political science at N.C. State, told Vanity Fair Hollywood can’t always help politicians.
“There’s very little evidence that anyone, let alone celebrities, can convince people in a hyper-partisan age to vote for somebody of the other party,” Cobb said. “That’s just not what they’re being asked to do and that’s not what they can do.”
So, while at least 167 celebrities actively endorsed Clinton, it wasn’t enough.
But, perhaps, voters felt alienated by the “Hollywood elite” — a club that Katzenberg, now a big boss in Biden’s campaign, belongs to.