Stars of 2000s political drama “The West Wing” Bradley Whitford, Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff and Mary McCormack were warmly welcomed by an energetic crowd at the Barrymore Theatre after canvassing with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin on Sunday.
Whitford hit the stage first, leading the audience in chanting, “we’re gonna win!”
This was not the first time the Wisconsin Democrats have partnered with a political television show. Last month, their “Veep” reunion raised $735,000. This election season, the Wisconsin Democrats have not shied away from dipping into pop culture, and Sunday morning was no different.
A Madison native, Whitford spoke about his father’s past role as the president of Planned Parenthood, a role he said “wasn’t controversial” back then. Whitford lamented political partisanship over abortion rights, comparing the present day landscape of women’s health care to Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“I'm working on a documentary called ‘The Handmaid's Tale’ now,” Whitford said ironically about his role on the Hulu television adaptation of the book. “Here we are in this moment, where Amber Thurman in Georgia died unnecessarily because she didn’t get access to the health care she needed because she wasn't she wasn't almost dead enough for the doctors to feel safe [performing abortion].”
The rest of the cast came out, announcing they would like to “reclaim” a song as they burst into singing the national anthem.
Whitford poked fun at Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde for not knowing the national anthem and alluded to the candidate not living in Wisconsin or knowing about the farm bill, a sweeping legislative package which provides nutritional assistance and farming subsidies. He said there is a lack of “rational Republicans” and called former President Donald Trump a “broken soul.”
Richard Schiff, who played White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler in “The West Wing,” got emotional when addressing the crowd.
Schiff shared his experience growing up after World War II and his family’s history escaping pogroms and antisemitic persecution in Eastern Europe. He recalled asking his family, “how did all of these people, many of whom I assume were people who just wanted to go to work and raise his family, be so easily complicit?”
“The man in 1933 was elected. He was elected to office, similar to what happened here in 2016,” Schiff said. “And now I'm understanding how it is possible when you don't stand up for what people think, if you don't stand up the fight against that kind of hatred and idiocy . . . this is what can happen as a result.”
Schiff spoke about his stepfather, Clarence B. Jones, and his continual advocacy as a close advisor for Martin Luther King Jr. who co-wrote the famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Mary McCormick, who played Deputy National Security Advisor Kate Harper, said she was “encouraged” by how angry women are and said she hopes this anger can bring real change.
“We shouldn't be even talking about the fact that [Trump] wants to ruin the environment, eliminate the Board of Education, his ridiculous non-existing economic policy work that he wants to ruin health care, take away Medicare,” she said. “The list is endless, but it should have ended when he bragged about sexual assault.”
She also talked about raising her 13-year-old daughter without a phone in the era of mass and school shootings.
“How will I tell you I love you if there’s a shooter?” McCormick said her daughter once told her, causing the actress to get teary-eyed. She ended by encouraging the crowd to find the apolitical women in their lives and “talk about how much they love their grandchildren, their granddaughters. [Ask] what kind of world they want to leave them.”
Lastly, Martin Sheen gave a fiery speech to the crowd, channeling the energy of fictitious President Jed Bartlet.
Sheen shared with the crowd an Irish story about a man who arrived at the gates of heaven and where Saint Peter asked to see his scars. When the man told Peter he had no scars, he replied, “what a pity. Was there nothing worth fighting for?” Sheen used this story to rally the crowd around the Harris-Walz ticket, speaking on the righteousness of fighting for something that’s right.
“We are all rightfully called to find something in our lives worth fighting for, something deeply personal and uncompromising, something that unites the widow of the spirit, the work of the flesh,” Sheen said.
Sheen ended the rally with a rendition of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Let My Country Awake,” changing the ending to “Dear Father, let our country awake.”
Bryna Goeking is an arts editor for The Daily Cardinal. She also reports on campus news. Follow her on Twitter @BrynaGoeking.
Sreejita Patra is a senior staff writer and the former summer ad sales manager for The Daily Cardinal. She has written for breaking news, campus news and arts and has done extensive reporting on the 2024 presidential race. She also covered the Oregon Village Board for the Oregon Observer.
