Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the highest grossing film of all time and its force is being felt in politics, too. The top names behind the instant sci-fi classic have also thrown their weight behind liberal causes and politicians.
Just four of the movie’s stars have collectively donated $1.22 million to candidates and Political Action Committees since 1999. Of that, only $3,400 didn’t go straight to the Democrat galaxy.
In case you’re wondering, that’s over 358 times as much money to Democrats as to Republicans.
Star Wars writer and director JJ Abrams is responsible for the majority of that. Between 2001 and 2015, he donated a total of $1,090,184 to candidates and PACs. While $2,400 went to the Directors Guild of America PAC, which supports Democrat and Republican candidates almost equally, the remainder - $1,087,784 - went straight to Democrats.
In June 2015, Abrams gave $500,000 to Priorities USA Action, which has declared, “we’re all in for Hillary Clinton.” Then in October, Abrams hosted a $33,400 per-head “roundtable discussion” at his home with President Obama. So he’s actually helped generate far more money for Obama.
Though modest in comparison, writer Lawrence Kasdan’s political contributions still totaled $87,366 between 2000 and 2014. All went exclusively to Democrats.
The beloved Han Solo - aka Harrison Ford - has given $43,050 to Democrats, including a generous $31,050 to Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign. Ford verbally confirmed his continuing support for Obama in 2013 when he told Meet the Press that he thought Obama was doing “a wonderful job,” and blamed the media for making the country “so fractious.”
In 1999, Ford donated $1,000 to Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign -- but followed it with a matching donation to Al Gore the next month, and then $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee one year later.
Not exactly a convincing Republican donor.
Carrie Fisher, forever known for her iconic Princess Leia cinnamon bun hair, has kept her actual political donations low ($500 to Democrat candidates during the 2000 election cycle). However, in a 2010 interview with the Pop Eater website, Fisher said she loved President Obama and wished she could meet him.
In all, Democrats have received $1,218,450 from just four Star Wars stars since 1999 - yet no one in major media has felt compelled to mention the obvious favoritism.
Compare that with the fury that erupted in January 2016 when a photo surfaced of actor Oscar Isaac wearing an Ayn Rand t-shirt five years ago.
Flighty pop-culture magazines including Paper Mag, The Daily Dot, NYMag, Mic.com, and Salon all ran stories criticizing the Star Wars actor, who played Poe in The Force Awakens, saying the internet would have to “break up with him now.” Their stories featured broken-hearted tweets and tumblr posts from Isaac’s liberal fangirls who felt betrayed by the possibility that Isaac did not vehemently hate capitalism.
