But the pro-Cruz side may have a more robust lobbying operation in the works in Los Angeles, with several dozen Hollywood Republicans and Friends of Abe—including Chetwynd himself—gearing up for an aggressive, multi-pronged push in support of Trump’s main rival.
According to multiple activists in Hollywood familiar with these discussions, Cruz supporters in FOA are lobbying colleagues and fellow conservative actors to “try to get people to move away from Trump,” according to one industry source, and see the light of the Cruz campaign.
Whether it’s at dinner parties, private events, fundraisers, cocktail hours, or one-on-one lunches, these committed Cruz fans are regularly pressing the flesh to drum up wider entertainment-industry support for the senator. They have a “to-do” list of celebrities they wish to soon convert to public Cruz endorsers, including Wheel of Fortune’s Pat Sajak, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, Patricia Heaton, David Mamet, Gary Sinise, and Kelsey Grammer…
Ideally, the Texas senator’s supporters would like to recruit enough high-profile actors and talent to justify a big coming out for Cruz, concert-style event that would end with Cruz himself taking the stage in California before the primary. During the 2008 presidential election, a few FOA members had drafted preliminary plans to mount a show like this for then Republican candidate John McCain but failed to enlist enough A-listers to stage an impressive, attention-grabbing function. (Eastwood was one of the few who would commit.)
