There are numerous stars across the entertainment landscape who have been active in the Democratic Party. These famous Dems have run for office and some of them even wound up winning, enjoying career pivots into politics. Here are some of the most well-known celebrities who have run for mayor, governor, senator, congressperson and other positions of authority at the state and federal level. (And here are their Republican celebrity counterparts.)
Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken is best known for being the runner-up winner on the second season of American Idol. He showed that silver could go as far as gold — he’s the fourth-highest-selling alumnus of the singing game show. But did you also know that he pivoted from pop to politics? In 2014, Aiken ran for the United States House of Representatives in North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district. Although he won the Democratic primary, he lost in the general election. Just last year, Aiken tried to secure his spot on the political stage again, running for the Democratic nomination in North Carolina’s 4th congressional district, but he lost in the primary.
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley was the original buckets-to-ballots celebrity. After a highly successful basketball career — he won an Olympic gold medal, a EuroLeague championship, two NBA championships as a member of the New York Knicks and was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame — he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1979, representing New Jersey. He earned a reputation as a “policy wonk,” specializing in complex tax legislation. He served in the Senate for three terms. He ended his political career after an unsuccessful presidential run in 2000, losing in the Democratic primary to Al Gore.
Cherie DeVille
Remember that time when a porn star ran for POTUS with “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper Coolio as her running mate? The Democrat adult film actress, whose real name is Carolyn Paparozzi, was determined to run for the party’s nomination and head straight to the Oval Office in 2020, riffing on her would-be-rival’s slogan, “Make America F—ing Awesome.” Although DeVille’s gimmick campaign failed to get off the ground, DeVille has steered her leadership aspirations to familiar territory: she serves as a member of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, and advocates for legal reforms to protect porn creators like herself, as well as consumers.
Al Franken
Do you think Al Franken repeated to himself that he was “good enough, smart enough, and — doggone it! — that people liked him” before he got up to the podium to deliver his campaign speeches? The mastermind behind Stuart Smalley, one of Saturday Night Live’s best recurring characters of the ’90s, Franken received 15 Emmy nominations and five Emmy awards during his long stint as a writer, performer and producer for SNL. After decades as a comic, Franken got serious, becoming a liberal political activist and a bestselling political writer and radio commentator. He served as a U.S. Senator for Minnesota from 2009 to 2017. He resigned after sexual misconduct allegations were made against him. But Franken is still outspoken about his political beliefs and domestic/international affairs analysis, doing so to this day on his podcast.
Melissa Ellen Gilbert
Democrat Melissa Ellen Gilbert’s political run was brief — a short run in 2016 for U.S. Congress before she withdrew her candidacy. But maybe she withdrew because she was so busy she realized she couldn’t take on another gig. She’s an actress, author, and former four-year president of the actors’ union, the Screen Actors Guild (now led by Fran “The Nanny” Drescher). While she’s forever best known for all her years of involvement with the Little House on the Prairie franchise, she’s acted consistently for decades, especially in TV movies, appeared on Dancing with the Stars in 2012, published a memoir in 2022.
Hill Harper
Actor Hill Harper, known best for his roles in CSI: NY, Limitless and The Good Doctor, announced this past July his bid to replace outgoing Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is not seeking a fifth term in 2024. Harper is the latest Democrat to challenge Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) in the state’s primary, and is doing because “we deserve a better brand of politics than politics as usual,” he told The Detroit News. Although Harper is a political newbie, he’s got a degree from Brown University and two degrees from Harvard University (where he befriended former two-term president, Barack Obama).
Nancy Kulp
The Beverly Hillbillies’ Miss Jane Hathaway and the voice of fancy horse Frou-Frou in Disney’s The Aristocats, Nancy Kulp was inspired by fellow actor-turned-politician President Ronald Reagan and ran as the Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 9th congressional district in 1984. Kulp lost to Republican incumbent Bud Shuster, and the legend is that it’s partially because one of her own Beverly Hillbillies co-stars, Buddy Ebsen, smeared Kulp’s name and her platform in a radio ad for the Shuster campaign. After that letdown, Kulp retired from seeking a seat in office, but she stayed politically active, joining numerous charitable causes like United Cerebral Palsy. She also publicly came out as gay in 1989, when it was almost unheard of for an actress, to fellow LGBT activist Boze Hadleigh in an interview for his book Hollywood Lesbians.
Cynthia Nixon
Sex and the City’s Miranda Hobbes really is… Such a Miranda. The career-minded, Type A friend of the fabulous foursome is portrayed by Cynthia Nixon who, much like her HBO show’s character, is a fiery advocate for what she believes is right. While Nixon is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, she ran as a Democrat in 2018 for the party’s primary for Governor of New York, challenging incumbent Andrew Cuomo. While she lost to Cuomo, Nixon has remained active in politics as an activist. The same year as her failed run, Nixon was honored with a Visibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign. Most recently, she endorsed and campaigned for Bernie Sanders in 2020’s Democratic Party presidential primaries, and in 2023, she signed an open letter expressing concerns about the New York Times’ allegedly biased reporting on transgender people.
Steven Michael Quezada
On Breaking Bad, Steven Michael Quezada played Steven Gomez, the by-the-book BFF and right-hand man of fellow Albuquerque-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris). Off-screen, Quezada is a born and raised Albuquerque native, who like his fictional counterpart, wanted to make a difference in his hometown. He was first elected to the school board in 2014, and then in 2016 ran for and won the Democratic nomination for New Mexico’s Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners for District 2. After his four-year term, he was re-elected in 2020 with no general election opposition. When Quezada isn’t heads-down in his municipal work, he does stand-up comedy, including for Carnival Cruise Line.
Ben Savage
Boy Meets World’s Cory Matthews may have learned a lot of life lessons from Mr. Feeny, but he’s still a political neophyte. Prior to announcing his intent this past spring to campaign as a Democrat for California’s 30th congressional district, Matthews’ only role “in office” was an internship in 2003 for former Republican Senator of Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, as a requirement for graduating with a degree in political science from Stanford University.