Julia Louis-Dreyfus sits down with The Hollywood Reunion to discuss the Seinfeld reunion she and her co-stars launched, and their future goals.
“Given how successful the Veep reunion event was for the Wisconsin Dems, I thought to myself, 'Jeez, we could do this again with my Seinfeld buddies and raise a s**t ton of money. How could we laser focus that?'” the actress tells The Hollywood Reporter of her idea.
A Fundraiser About Something raised more than $500K for Democrats in Wisconsin, a key swing state. Now, she hopes to turn Texas blue. She, Jason Alexander and Larry David set their reunion in a matter of days as the presidential election nears.
She says: “I do believe our democracy is on the line,” she says of 2020. “I believe we’re going to win the Senate. I believe we’re going to win the White House. And then, we’ve got a ton of work to do!”
Louis-Dreyfus explains of her motivation: “Well, sure — because there are three branches of government. Not only do we want to win the executive branch — that’s critical, needless to say — but there’s an urgency to getting majority in the Senate as well, and having Mitch McConnell sit down. It’s enough. He’s caused a lot of destruction, and I think everything he stands for is an outrage. So I’m eager for a new Senate majority leader. And then these state down-ballot races are just as critical and it’s something that the Democrats are getting really good at. The Republicans have been really good at it, and I think they realized it earlier than the Dems did — that these state races and state legislatures have enormous impact in terms of redistricting and so on in individual states.”
Of the passion this time around she says: “This race feels different, but not just from a Hollywood point of view. I think it feels different from an American point of view. Citizens are being called to action in a way that they haven’t in the past. Just look at the voter turnout thus far. The numbers are astounding and we’re two weeks away from Nov. 3. I would say that, yes, our business is stepping up, but I think that all factions of the country are stepping up. Actually, I don’t think, I know.”
Does she really think Texas could go blue? “I’m very hopeful. First of all, voter turnout in Texas as we speak is the highest voter turnout of any state in the U.S. Since 2016, they’ve added 2.6 million new voters to the voting roll and 1.6 million of those people are of color and/or under the age of 35. That number, 2.6 million, is the population of New Mexico — it’s as if New Mexico was plopped down in the middle of Texas and started voting. I think that’s a very good sign.”
The reunion lands today (Friday).