Who better to bring the country’s eight Democratic governors together than Julia Louis-Dreyfus? The actress famously played Veep as a fictional politician and in this series she hilariously never stood up for women. As is well known, brought back into circulation Veep Recent scenes have reminded fans of the HBO comedy of her slamming her political advisers for starting speeches with “As a woman…” or suggesting she run for president as an all-female candidate (“The American people work hard for a living, OK? They don’t need that kind of nonsense,” she quipped.)
But in real life, the Emmy-winning actress, producer and activist is the exact opposite. When she came to town for the Democratic National Convention, the staunch Kamala Harris supporter invited the country’s eight Democratic female governors to a conversation.
Unlike her character Selina Meyer, the goal of the chat on Wednesday, the third day of the 2024 DNC, was to shine a spotlight on the governors who have made history by changing the role of women in leadership and shattering marble ceilings in the process.
But she still brought some humor with her.
After welcoming her guests to the stage by walking down the line and giving them high fives, Louis-Dreyfus quickly took aim at Harris’ opponent, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and Trump’s running mate JD Vance.
She called out the eight women on her stage, taking a swipe at Vance’s resurfaced, headline-grabbing remark that women without children were “childless cat ladies.” The group, Louis-Dreyfus, said, was a gathering that Vance might describe as “a coven of half-menstruating witches.”
Then he added, to the laughter of the crowd, “We’re going to have fun here.”
Join the Seinfeld Star were Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, Maine Governor Janet Mills, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek.
Louis-Dreyfus, who appeared at Stephen Colbert’s DNC opening night Late Show When she came on the lineup on Monday, she said she had been smiling for a month. Since Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket for the 2024 presidential election, “my face hurts,” she noted.
“Did anyone else cry for two hours last night listening to the First Gentlemen (Doug Emhoff) and the Obamas?” she asked of the DNC’s second night of prime-time speakers. “We’re laughing, we’re crying — I’m damn exhausted, to be honest. But we’re full of hope and joy. And all of you, women on this stage, are proof that Martin Luther King Jr. was right when he said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ Sometimes we forget that when Trump tries to bend it the other way.”
During the chat, Louis-Dreyfus asked the group lighter questions—like whether they should test her on their state flower, telling stories about office pranks (New Mexico Gov. Grisham told a story about removing all the furniture from a congressman’s office, laying down sod and putting it back on the lawn) and briefly mentioning Harris’ summer of roasting—to more serious issues that are most on voters’ minds right now.
Remind women how Veepher character once joked: “When men get pregnant, they can get an abortion at an ATM,” she asked New York Governor Hochul about her experiences with the repeal of the Dobbs Decision and Roe v. Wade.
“I’m going to fight like crazy to get it back for my granddaughter,” Hochul said of the moment she described as painful but also a moment of action. “Yes, you can get an abortion in New York State, but there are sisters across the country who are going to need our help.”
She says she began expanding the clinics to make her state a safe haven by passing protections for doctors so they couldn’t be prosecuted by other states. “We passed laws, we got involved. I visited Planned Parenthood clinics right at the beginning. But as a result of that decision, a third of all women of childbearing age in this country are currently living under an abortion ban.”
In November, Governor Hobbs said her state had a chance to protect abortion rights in Arizona. “Women who become pregnant don’t have access to the care they need,” she said. “We are surrounded by pro-abortion states, and we are working to make sure people get the care they need.”
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly added: “They shouldn’t have baited the bear. Because what happened was women, men, people from all over Kansas came to a primary… we had a record turnout and 60 percent of Kansas residents affirmed women’s right to privacy and reproductive rights. And I think we set the stage then for other states to do what they needed to do… and I think it continues. There’s no lack of interest. It really woke people up, especially our young people.”
Since 2018, the DGA has invested more than $80 million in states and campaigns to elect and re-elect this group and also launched the Women Governors Fund, dedicated to electing Democratic female governors.
Watch the women discuss the above and share their advice for Harris (“Let Kamala be Kamala” and “We didn’t win; we have to fight for every single vote”) and more in the chat below.
