Some of the Hollywood figures who helped Democrats retake the House in 2018 are reluctant to help them do it again.
Screenwriters, directors and other entertainment industry figures who once coached Democratic candidates, wrote their speeches and helped run rapid response operations are, at best, unmotivated to help this cycle and, at worst, entirely disillusioned with the party. Still, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ camp has been turning to industry types as a messaging resource, but some executives are upset that leaders can’t control the caucus’ growing progressive wing.
“The Democratic Party right now is torn in a couple directions, and some of those directions I’m no longer willing to work for or countenance, and so I’m a lot more sparing about it,” Gregg Hurwitz, a novelist and screenwriter known for his thriller series “Orphan X,” told The Washington Sun.
Hurwitz is part of a band of entertainment industry screenwriters, directors and producers who helped Democrats pick up 40 seats to gain control of the House in 2018. He said he worked pro bono writing and producing ads and coming up with a framework for moderate messaging that, he argued, “moves people away from the far left and right extremism.”
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Hurwitz worked with Democratic campaigns between 2015 and 2022 but said he decided to leave the party after helping former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota) challenge President Joe Biden in the 2024 primary. He cited the fact that Phillips faced attacks for raising concerns about Biden’s age and said vendors associated with Phillips were met with threats of being blacklisted for life — behavior he compared to the Chinese Communist Party.
He officially signed paperwork to change his party affiliation from Democrat to independent last fall.
For Hurwitz, the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America and “having candidates winning primaries now who have stated overtly that America is worse than Hamas and that white women are ‘ugly colonialist women,’” is not behavior he could condone, he said. “To me, it’s a measure of extremism that the left has permitted without drawing a line that is incredibly threatening.”
Now, the self-described liberal said he’s instead limiting his messaging strategies to more moderate Democrats and even some Republicans — including those within the Trump administration. Hurwitz declined to provide names.
“Now and then I will get a call from people on either side. It could be someone in the current administration, and if I’m convinced that they’re doing something that will benefit the American people, especially anyone who’s working class, I’m open to helping.” Hurwitz said.
Similarly, Marshall Herskovitz, a screenwriter and director known for creating the television shows “Thirtysomething” and “My So-Called Life,” said that he’s done dealing with Democrats. After President Donald Trump was reelected in 2024, Democrats, he told The Sun, “seemed just absolutely incapable of dealing with the size of the disaster.”
“I no longer try to work within the apparatus of the party, which is what I did in 2018, 2020, ’22, making commercials and doing position papers that they could use or not use, that sort of thing,” Herskovitz said. He criticized the current party structure as “ossified” and told The Sun the party “basically exists to keep the same people employed.”
Instead, Herskovitz is focused on helping Democrats who he connects with organically and not through official party channels. He has met with Democratic donors and with podcast creators about developing a project where he could communicate his vision for the party.
“Since Trump was elected again, and when I saw what Democrats were doing and not doing, I just came to realize that if there were going to be any answers, it was going to come from outside the party,” Herskovitz said.
He said about the fissure between Hollywood and current Democratic leaders: “It’s sad. It shouldn’t have to be this way.”
Another filmmaker who requested anonymity since they still work with some Democratic candidates said much of the frustration comes from the language used, rather than the policies.
“Only Democrats have a hard time with it, OK? And that’s because we tend to speak in these cotton candy terms that sound like they were dreamed up in the Harvard faculty lounge,” the filmmaker said. “No one in the world says ‘bodily autonomy,’ they just don’t. Nobody says ‘unhoused’ when they mean ‘homeless.’ Nobody says ‘justice impacted individual’ when they mean ‘criminal.’ And no farmer in history ever woke up, looked at his wife and said, ‘I’m having an affordability issue.’”
Not all screenwriters and producers that worked with Democrats in the past are mad at the party — but they also aren’t rushing to help.
Shawn Ryan, a screenwriter and producer known for his shows “The Night Agent” and “S.W.A.T.”, worked with Hurwitz and Herskovitz in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic making ads for political groups. He stopped working directly with Democrats because he “was just super busy with work,” Ryan told The Sun. His involvement in politics now, he said, revolves around donating to candidates he likes.
“I’m not looking to sort of bash Democrats at the moment. Republicans have always had more discipline in their messaging than Democrats. Democrats are just a messier sort of group, but they’re also, I think, a little bit more dedicated to good governing,” Ryan said.
But, Ryan added, he understood the aggravations of Hurwitz, Herkovitz and the other filmmaker.
“They have the ear of a lot of people in the Democratic Party, so I think that’s where their frustration comes from,” Ryan said. “We’re used to, as writers, really thinking long and hard about the exact perfect word, and when we hear people saying imperfect words when the stakes are so high, of course it’s of frustration.”
Jeffries’ Ties to Hollywood Can Be Traced Back to 2018
Despite these screenwriters’ criticism, Democrats are running back to the entertainment industry for advice now that they see the majority within reach.
Jeffries’ team has hosted at least two meetings with screenwriters to discuss messaging ahead of the midterms, The Sun has learned.
His office invited a select group of chiefs of staff to meet with “Hollywood TV producers and screenwriters who are offering support to House Democrats” in the Capitol in April 2025, according to an invite sent to congressional offices viewed by The Sun. And in July, House Democratic staffers again met with screenwriters in New York to “refine and expand” their messaging, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with the matter.
A spokesperson for Jeffries did not comment.
In addition to staff-led meetings, Jeffries has been a guest on non-political podcasts, like “Men in Blazers” and “The Dan Le Batard Show.” He’s also talked about Jay-Z on The Ringer’s “The Press Box.”
During the 2018 election cycle, Jeffries was co-chair of House Democratic leadership’s messaging arm, and he developed connections with Hollywood executives to craft the caucus’s communications.
“Our mission was to create the right messaging that would lead to us winning back the majority. And I have been communicating with screenwriters regularly since then,” former Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, who served as House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee co-chair with Jeffries at the time, told The Sun.
“They know how to tell stories compellingly, emotionally and movingly. They use the right words, the right tone and the right feel,” Bustos continued. “I can’t think of any better writers and storytellers than the screenwriters, directors and authors who I have worked with through Democratic politics.”
Democratic leaders also connected candidates to producers in 2018. Former Rep. Harley Rouda of California, who defeated a Republican incumbent at the time, told The Sun that candidates in the House Democrats’ flagship ‘Red to Blue’ program “had access to people in Hollywood.” Screenwriters did not just consult candidates, they were directly involved with their communication operations.
“The concept was pretty simple: They are excellent storytellers, that’s what they do for a living, and the best way to connect with voters was to be able to tell a compelling story with compelling messaging that hopefully allows you the opportunity to win the race,” Rouda said.
He added, “Prior to 2018, Hollywood and the film industry predominantly were supporters of Democratic causes and candidates with their checkbooks.” Rouda said Trump’s 2016 election prompted filmmakers to actually get involved.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which handles the ‘Red to Blue’ program, downplayed any coordination, saying in a statement, it “does not connect screenwriters to our campaigns.”
“Our mission has been recruiting candidates with working backgrounds who listen to the voters directly. What they are hearing is that the American people are pissed at House Republicans and their broken promises — it’s easy to see why folks from all walks of life are raising their hand and asking how they can help Democrats take back the House,” said DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton.
The anonymous filmmaker who is still working with Democrats told The Sun they have written speeches “for a ton” of candidates and have been flown “from state to state to do candidate training” by “private individuals” or some state Democratic parties. The filmmaker declined to say which candidates they are working with.
“This is literally half of my day. This is the unpaid half of my day. It’s helping Democrats learn how to sound less like Democrats, so that they can make the argument that independent voters can actually hear,” the filmmaker said.
One House Democrat who has worked directly with the filmmaker told The Sun that the filmmaker has met with politicians for one-on-one meetings at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, an exclusive, members-only club frequented by celebrities.
Hollywood to Dems: Stop Saying ‘Affordability’
In addition to in-person coaching sessions, the filmmaker also sends emails to dozens of Democratic lawmakers and candidates with messaging advice. The Sun viewed over half a dozen emails they had sent this election cycle, including one where they advised Democrats to stay away from their favorite word: “affordability.”
“I HATE the word affordability. No one in the real world says it. No farmer in history ever said to his wife, ‘I’m having a real affordability crisis lately.’ It’s another cotton-candy Democrat word,” the filmmaker wrote. “Try THIS instead: The Cost of Trump.”
“This can mean higher prices for eggs, gas, diesel, fertilizer, insurance, utilities. It can mean the closing of rural hospitals, the end of Medicaid, the rise of A.I. without any guardrails,” they added. “The list is endless — but ALL of these things are The COST OF TRUMP. I just tried this phrase on a breakfast attended by 20 people. It CRUSHED.”
In another email, with the subject line “WHITE POVERTY,” the filmmaker wrote: “Among the many poor and low-income voters in the US, 66 million are white. They comprise 40% of the electorate in swing states. They largely voted for Biden in 2020 and then stayed home in 2024.”
“Kamala [Harris] tried to sell joy to people who couldn’t afford eggs. And we made things worse by correcting their pronouns,” they added. “All they really want is someone who will go to bat for their families in real and meaningful ways.”
And in a third email, the filmmaker urged Democrats to stop saying that Congress did not approve Trump’s war in Iran because it “sounds like whining.”
Democrats should instead say that “we are better off” without the Islamic Republic of Iran, the filmmaker wrote, but that Trump is not the person to lead because his policies “have been catastrophic.”
The House Democrat who spoke to The Sun said that some of the emails are “very eccentric but I read them and they’re helpful.”
Still, some Democrats were quick to downplay filmmakers’ involvement in the party’s messaging.
In 2011, after Democrats lost control of the House, then-Leader Nancy Pelosi met with people in the film industry to discuss ideas about how they could win back the majority, the former DCCC official said. But, they added, Pelosi took these meetings because “It wasn’t just Nancy Pelosi wanting to hear people’s thoughts, it was Nancy Pelosi doing very important donor maintenance.”
“Let’s just say that when I got briefed on the results of these sessions, they were not things that we ran and shared with our candidates because they just weren’t relevant,” the official said. Pelosi’s office did not respond to The Sun’s requests for comment.
Another Democratic consultant who has extensive experience with the intersection of actors, screenwriters and politicians said that sentiment continues in the 2026 election cycle.
“I don’t need them for comms strategy, I need them for their fucking fame and money,” the consultant told The Sun. “After all, the last thing any campaign needs is another cook in the kitchen when writing talking points.”
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