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Actor Astin stumps for Hillary at YSU; Chelsea Clinton, Sally Field to visit Sat.
YOUNGSTOWN
Actor Sean Astin said he is campaigning for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton because “I care deeply about the country.”
Astin attracted a crowd of about 100 people Thursday on the Youngstown State University campus, outside Kilcawley Center, speaking in support of Clinton – even though most of the questions he was asked after his talk were about his roles in “Rudy” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton, the nominee’s daughter, and Academy Award-winning actress Sally Field will campaign Saturday at Covelli Centre’s Community Room.
That event will start at 2:45 p.m. with the doors opening at 2 p.m. Those who want to attend can RSVP at http://hrc.io/2dkGfQb.
On Thursday, Astin said his first public political event was opening for Clinton at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1992 when her husband, Bill, successfully ran for president.
“It was an incredible education,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Vindicator. “She absolutely captured my civil imagination. I’ve been a supporter ever since.”
And Astin is not a fan of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“He’s absolutely unqualified to do the job of president of the United States, and it would be a catastrophe for the country to give him that chance,” Astin said of Trump.
When asked about polls that show a very close race between Clinton and Trump, Astin said he was “absolutely infuriated about how tight the polls are. I want not to believe them. I want to start casting doubt on every media force and pollster and everything else. But when it gets down to it, none of that matters. What matters is how well the debates go, how well this incredible ground game is.”
Astin said his mother, actress Patty Duke, who died March 29, “always told me my voice, because I’m an actor, was no more important than anybody else’s, but it’s no less important, either.”
Astin also made campaign stops Thursday in Wooster, Canton and Cleveland.
While Astin spoke at YSU, Chelsea Clinton will be at the Covelli Centre’s meeting room rather than the university.
The campaign looked at locations on campus, said Shannon Tirone, YSU’s associate vice president for university relations.
“When they came in, they had specifics with room size, and we didn’t have the space they needed,” she said. “We asked about a different date,” but the campaign didn’t want to change it.