Celebrities who weren't afraid to get political in 2020

Many athletes are celebrities, and LeBron is one of the biggest celebrity athletes in the world. Also, he was great in “Trainwreck” and is starring in the “Space Jam” reboot, so we feel like we can count him either way. This year, the NBA was extremely active in the Black Lives Matter cause. LeBron also helped raise millions of dollars to help recruit poll workers through More Than a Vote. We want to shout out every basketball player, and athlete, who played a role in the political activities in 2020 right here. We’re glad you didn’t merely shut up and dribble.

Veterans of the CW’s soapy teen shows maybe wouldn’t be perceived as being particularly politically astute. Don’t cast those assumptions on “One Tree Hill” and “Chicago P.D.” album Bush, who is as much an activist as an actor these days. She has been speaking out politically on social media for years and encouraged her followers to vote basically every day leading up to the election. She also has a podcast called “Work in Progress” where she interviews people like Gloria Steinem.

Legend has been speaking out against Donald Trump since even before the 2016 election, and in 2018 he gave $72,000 to the ACLU on Trump’s birthday. During the 2020 Democratic Convention, which had to be done by-and-large remotely due to the pandemic, Legend voiced his support for President-Elect Joe Biden and performed his song “Never Break.”

Jordan had one of his first big starring roles in “Fruitvale Station,” a film about Oscar Grant, who was killed by police in Oakland. That was a work of activism, and Jordan has remained active ever since. The “Creed” star participated in a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles this year, among other activities.

Did we ever need to mention Fonda? Maybe we should just retire her name to the rafters when it comes to political celebrities? In recent years, Fonda has been particularly active when it comes to climate change, and in 2019 started something called “Fire Drill Fridays,” where she and others would protest through civil disobedience. Fonda was arrested multiple times for that. The longtime activist kept the protests going into March of 2020 before she had to stop them because of the pandemic.

You may not listen to Eilish, and you may dismiss her because she’s only 18, but we need people like Eilish to be politically active to get your people engaged in the process. Like Legend, Eilish performed during the Democratic National Convention. Before performing her song “My Future,” she gave an impassioned speech, which included saying, “It starts with voting against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden. Silence is not an option, and we cannot sit this one out.”

Lovato released a couple of new songs in 2020, including “Commander in Chief,” which she released prior to the 2020 Presidential Election. She was very much in favor of voting for Biden in that election. In 2020, she also spoke out for Black Lives Matters and appeared remotely at the GLAAD Awards. She also auctioned off her own personal clothing to fans who promised to vote.

For years, Swift seems notably apolitical. Michael Jordan famously said that Republicans buy sneakers too, and it felt sometimes like Swift was doing the same thing. Then, Swift decided she couldn’t be silent anymore. She first supported a candidate in 2018 in a Tennessee election and in 2020 spoke out against Trump, and especially the way the U.S. Postal Service was hindered in the lead up to the election. Swift also dropped a political song “Only the Young” in January.

OK, so Swift and Perry famously don’t get along with one another, but we are putting them back-to-back nevertheless. At least they seem to agree on Trump, as well as the 2020 Presidential election. Perry was a vocal supporter of Hilary Clinton in 2016, and she stayed active in 2020. The singer was also one of the headliners of the Rock the Vote concert event in the summer.

Messing has been extremely vocal since the election of Trump, and has even had shots fired at her by Trump himself (of course, that notably thin-skinned gentleman isn’t exactly stingy with the insults). The “Will & Grace” star took things to another level in 2020, starting a podcast with Mandana Dayani, the founder of the group I Am a Voter. Their podcast is called “The Dissenters,” a title chosen to honor the late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Markle saw her celebrity rise when she left “Suits” and married into the royal family. You may have heard about that. However, Markle and Prince Harry are more openly, actively political than many political members. The two famously stepped away from the royal family and even moved from England back to the United States. She was active in trying to encourage people to vote, including appearing alongside Michelle Obama and her When We All Vote Campaign.

It wasn't just on the left where celebrities stepped into the political realm. Those who are on the Republican side of things spoke up as well. Let’s start with Chachi himself, Scott Baio. Baio has been a Trump supporter for a while, and in 2020 he kept active at that. In fact, Baio even appeared in an interview on the official website for Trump’s 2020 campaign.

Alley made no bones about voting for Trump in 2020. In addition to her active support of Trump, she also expressed disdain for Biden as well. Her Twitter was laden with pro-Trump and anti-Biden rhetoric, even accusing Biden of being incoherent as a candidate. Which, well, the cognitive dissonance on that should be clear.

Dennis’ brother Randy’s support of Trump was already well known. Of course, people don’t tend to listen much to Randy these days, as he has a reputation for being – at best – an eccentric fellow. However, Dennis had a better reputation for sensibility than his brother. Some may have been surprised when, in an interview with “The Daily Beast,” Dennis voiced his support for Trump. Specifically, for Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

We all know Voight supports Trump. He’s been doing it since before 2016. Voight supported Trump before the election, but after the election, the actor doubled down and jumped into the land of conspiracy theories. Voight posted a video saying that Biden winning the election was a “lie” and compared Biden to Satan. Needless to say, he wasn’t taking the loss well, but he stayed political. Points for that, we guess?

Hart was once a host of “Entertainment Tonight” and before the pandemic, you could see her behind home plate at many Dodgers games (at least, if you tuned in before she ducked out around the sixth inning or so). With no Dodgers games to go to (on account of a pandemic exacerbated by Trump’s decision-making), Hart was the emcee at a Trump event held on the Fourth of July at Mt. Rushmore.

It feels fitting that the man who plays Captain America would care about the future of the nation. While he is vocally opposed to Trump and supports democratic candidates, Evans started a bipartisan political website in 2020 called “A Starting Point.” However, he and some of his fellow “Avengers” cast members also hosted a fundraising event for the Biden/Harris ticket called “Voters Assemble! The Cast of Avengers United for Democracy.”

Rudd, like his costar Evans, was part of the “Avengers” fundraising event. However, we want to give the “Ant-Man” star an extra shout out. Rudd hit the streets of New York to hand out cookies to voters waiting in line. Those waits can be quite long in some areas, and we imagine getting a cookie from Rudd made it much more tolerable.

Making it to live events was difficult in 2020, at least if you wanted to be safe. Safety was a priority of the Biden/Harris campaign, but some celebrities still went through the effort to get to speaking events while maintaining safe health practices. Lizzo, for example, made it to events in Detroit and Harper Woods, two cities in the key swing state of Michigan. It just so happened Michigan turned from red to blue in 2020.

Political ads were ubiquitous in 2020, and you may have gotten tired of them. However, even if your ears were bleeding from being overwhelmed by political rhetoric, your attention was probably grabbed by the Biden ad that Pitt provided the voiceover for. He is, after all, one of the most famous and beloved actors in the world (and won his first Oscar in 2020 as well). The Pitt ad aired during the World Series, getting in front of a lot of eyes.

Cyrus got the attention of music fans by announcing she would be releasing an album in November. Then, with all eyes on her, a few hours later Cyrus did an Instagram Live video with Kamala Harris, the new Vice President-Elect. That’s using your popularity and celebrity for a good cause.

The erstwhile Rachel Green posted photos on Instagram of her dropping her ballot off in the mail early, which was in and of itself a way to encourage her followers to vote early as well if possible. Included with the photos was a lengthy, passionate explanation of why she voted for Biden. Aniston also added a P.S. to say that voting for Kanye West for President was not a funny idea. Remember when we had to worry about people doing that?

Johnson is one of the biggest movie stars in the world – and there have been murmurs in the past about him getting politically involved personally – but he had never publicly endorsed a candidate before 2020. This year, though, he did a video conversation with both Biden and Harris where he stated for the record that he supported their ticket and they had his vote. Apparently what The Rock was cooking was political activism.

In a weird way, Hanks became involving politically when he announced that he had his wife Rita Wilson had both contracted COVID-19 at a time before the disease had really entered the public consciousness in the United States. That feels insane to type now. Sadly, the pandemic has been politicized, but Hanks has always remained vocal on those matters. On top of that, he and Wilson also did fundraising for the Biden/Harris campaign as well.

Rogen got involved in a few ways in 2020, and not just by supporting Biden and telling voters to stay in line on Election Night. The comedian was one of many celebrities who contributed to bail funds in states like Minnesota to help bail out protestors being arrested. Rogen was also part of a virtual fundraiser for the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina, Jaime Harrison. While Harrison lost, political activity should not be acknowledged only when it is successful.