Politics

West Wing actor issues real life Help! call for politician

Jonathan Strong Jonathan Strong, 27, is a reporter for the Daily Caller covering Congress. Previously, he was a reporter for Inside EPA where he wrote about environmental regulation in great detail, and before that a staffer for Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA). Strong graduated from Wheaton College (IL) with a degree in political science in 2006. He is a huge fan of and season ticket holder to the Washington Capitals hockey team. Strong and his wife reside in Arlington.
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“Tired of being cooped up in the legislative sausage-making factory?” asks “West Wing” actor Bradley Whitford, now sporting a mustache, in a new ad targeting Hill staffers.

The ad urges the staffers to help a Democratic candidate running in Missouri’s 8th District, Tommy Sowers, who has virtually no chance of winning.

“We need you to get out the vote for Tommy Sowers. So tell your chief of staff, or not, but get yourself down there,” says Whitford, “on behalf of the acting President of the United States, that’s an order.”

Sowers is apparently hoping a little celebrity can get volunteers pouring into the district to help him overcome the long, long odds. (Nate Silver of the New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight election blog gives Sowers a 0 percent chance of winning).

Besides the ad to Hill staffers, Whitford also targets students at Duke University and volunteers from the Obama campaign in 2008.

“How you doin’ Blue Devils? You know I used to work in a fake White House with a guy named Sam who went to Duke,” Whitford says. “Do you know that one of your own is running for Congress in the 8th district of Missouri? He is.”

“So, this is a Blue Devil, who’s running, ok? So I need you to get down there, now, and help Tommy get out the vote,” Whitford says. “What else are you gonna do? Basketball season isn’t up and running, really. Nobody cares until after the holidays. You’re just gonna be sitting in Perkins watching YouTube?”

In the ad to Obama volunteers, Whitford says, “in 2008 you worked hard for change and to elect a president…entrenched power doesn’t step aside after just one election, so now we need you to do it again.”