Actor George Clooney is confident that Democrats will reclaim control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections— and he’s betting on it.
“I think we’ll get the House back in a year and a half,” Clooney said in an interview with Variety published on Tuesday.
Clooney, an outspoken supporter of the Democratic Party and a major fundraiser, sees the upcoming elections as an opportunity to restore balance. He believes that a Democratic win would provide much-needed “check and balance on power.”
Currently, Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House, with 220 seats compared to 213 for Democrats, and two vacancies in districts that were previously held by Democrats.
But Clooney isn’t just predicting a win — he’s calling for better representation.
“If you’re a Democrat, we have to find some people to represent us better, who have a sense of humor and who have a sense of purpose,” said Clooney, who is also known for his activism and political involvement.
In a conversation with famed Broadway performer Patti LuPone, Clooney reflected on the state of American politics, drawing comparisons to the turbulent 1960s.
“You’ve been around long enough to remember 1968. Every city in the United States was on fire,” Clooney said. “We’d lost Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. We were losing the greatest speakers we’d ever had. The Vietnam War was raging, the Tet offensive, everything that was going on at that time in our country. The president basically resigned because Walter Cronkite said that Vietnam is unwinnable.”
Despite today’s political chaos, however, Clooney is hopeful.
“We’ve been in much worse places,” he said. “The only thing that’s different is the source of information and how much and how many different sources.”
Clooney acknowledged that it “feels violent” right now, but believes the situation is not as hopeless as it once was. He pointed out that America has faced dark times before, and it has come through.
He also commented on President Donald Trump’s role in American politics, saying, “From President Jackson to McCarthy to this, the authoritarian, the demagogue, it goes away when they go away. And he will go away.”
Before Trump became a political figure, Clooney described him as a “New York beast” who was “just a guy chasing women” while working in real estate.
Trump recently called Clooney a “second rate movie star” and a “failed political pundit” after Clooney penned a New York Times op-ed urging President Biden to step aside in 2024.
Still, Clooney gave Trump credit for one thing: charisma.
“Republicans don’t have anybody that’s as charismatic as [Trump]. He’s charismatic. There’s no taking that away from him. He’s a television star,” Clooney said.
“Eventually we’ll find our better angels,” he said. “We have every other time.”
