List of American Politicians Who Were Actors Or Musicians

Ballotpedia is an amazing website for information on ballot access for third parties. It also has other pop culture news related to politics and elections. Amee LaTour examines  the list of American politicians who were actors or musicians in Ballotpedia:

In February, before this year’s Super Bowl, we shared a list of political figures who had played in the big game. With the GRAMMY Awards presentation this weekend and the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominees on Monday, I thought we’d look at some candidates and officeholders who were also actors and musicians.

We sent our staff hunting the web to see what they could dig up. 

• • Our list includes 12 current and former officeholders who acted in TV shows or movies—two presidents, two U.S. senators, three U.S. representatives, two governors, and three local officials. 
    • Those officeholders come from eight states, with four from California and two from Minnesota. Among them are six Republicans, three Democrats, one Reform Party member, and two who were nonpartisan.

• • We also identified eight unsuccessful candidates for office who were also actors—four from California, three from New York, and one from Michigan. Seven of them ran for U.S. House districts and one for governor of New York.

• • Two U.S. House members and three candidates are or were musicians, each from a different state. 

These lists aren’t exhaustive. We focused mainly on recent officeholders and candidates whom we have covered on Ballotpedia, though there are a few additional names on the list. We reviewed a variety of sources in putting these lists together, including Backstage, Business Insider, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and IMDb. 

From Fred Thompson and Cynthia Nixon to Sonny Bono and Clay Aiken, it’s a star-studded report.

Continue reading here for full list.