Given that Hollywood is often caricatured as a hotbed of liberalism, it’s surprising that Republicans seem so much better than Democrats at the showbiz side of politics. Two Republican presidents have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, as does the former Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yet among liberals there persists a sense that running celebrities for public office is somehow déclassé, cynical or simply not something a serious party does.
The Democrats need to reckon with a new reality: The electorate wants to be entertained. Instead of continuing to run highly credentialed political lifers, the party needs to embrace the idea of the celebrity candidate — and find someone with sincerely-held progressive beliefs, sky-high name recognition and experience winning over the kinds of voters who’ve supported the MAGA movement. In other words, they need to find someone like Jerry Springer.
Mr. Springer, who died in 2023, is best known for his gleefully distasteful TV show, which for nearly three decades featured a parade of cheating spouses, incestuous siblings and rowdy strippers who routinely erupted in brutal onstage brawls. With his glasses, jacket and tie, Mr. Springer would hang back at a safe distance, an unlikely instigator standing amid a jeering crowd and politely asking questions.
Yes, that Jerry Springer should serve as a model for the kind of standard-bearer Democrats should be looking for: a professionally famous person with an intuitive grasp of attention, a flair for drama and conflict, and a proven ability to communicate with a broad audience regardless of its political affiliations.
As a celebrity, Mr. Springer had none of the glamour of, say, a Beyoncé, a George Clooney or a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — some of the names occasionally mentioned as possible political recruits. But that’s the point. For Democrats, the issue of being perceived as talking down to voters is one that the party continues to struggle with. Many of the voters who improbably regard Mr. Trump, a gilded billionaire, as an everyman with a common touch, cheered for Mr. Springer because he seemed relatable and never condescending. That kind of figure, coupled with a talent for showmanship, might prove a recipe for success now, even more so than it did for Mr. Springer during the political career he began in advance of rising to fame as a talk-show host.
Before Mr. Springer became an icon of bad taste, and before his name — Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! — became a kind of tawdry war cry, he had a promising career in government. He was an idealistic and ambitious progressive reformer elected to office in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the 1970s as a city councilman. He appealed to countercultural college students and blue-collar workers alike. During his time in City Hall, he opposed the Vietnam War, led a successful campaign to create a city-owned bus system and advocated reforms at the local jail. He resigned from the City Council in 1974, following a prostitution scandal — a seeming career ender at the time, though one he came back from, successfully reclaiming his seat and then serving as mayor of Cincinnati.
