With high-profile midterm elections taking place all over the country tomorrow, the nation’s actor unions are doing their part to encourage performers to get out and vote. In a weekend email, Actors’ Equity, the nation’s union for stage actors and stage managers encouraged their members to make a plan for voting and figure out the logistics. With many of its members holding freelance side gigs, Equity seemed to be sending the message that voting needs to be on tomorrow’s agenda for its members. Last week, Gabrielle Carteris, president of SAG-AFTRA—the nation’s union for screen actors—released a video message to her base saying, “Midterm elections carry significant implications for the future of our union in this country.”
It’s a notable step for both unions to be so engaged in turning out the vote for midterms. In 2016, Actors’ Equity made its first endorsement of a presidential candidate in its history. “Our union has historically chosen to remain nonpartisan and above the fray,” said Equity President Kate Shindle in a 2016 statement. “But at such a critical time in our country’s history, this union does not have that luxury if we hope to protect our members.”
Equity also took a notable step roughly a year ago when they denounced the proposed GOP tax bill—which would have influenced itemized tax deductions, an advantage every tax season. This election cycle, the union has also made endorsements in the California and Illinois governors races. (One of the country’s most watched elections is taking place in Georgia as the state votes for a new governor tomorrow. Georgia has seen a boom in film work centered in Atlanta because of state tax incentives.)
Union matters have reemerged as a hot-button issue in American politics. While labor unions suffered a blow in June when the Supreme Court rendered a controversial ruling saying that nonunion members do not need to pay fees for union negotiations on their behalf, the country has also seen a wave of influential teacher union protests in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona.
All of the advocacy and encouragement adds to the hype of a highly anticipated election tomorrow and indicates that politics have become a topic permeating every sector of the country. So get out and vote!