Oscar-winning actor George Clooney has put three Democrats into the 2028 conversation — Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear — while making clear he is endorsing none of them yet. Speaking at The Future of Creativity event in Venice, Italy, on Friday, September 4, 2026, the actor said he would hold off on backing a candidate until after the November midterm elections, and he flatly ruled out a campaign of his own.
Clooney, 65, who ranks among the Democratic Party’s most prominent donors and fundraisers, named the Georgia senator first. “I think we’re all very excited by this young senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoff,” he said in video obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail.
He continued: “I am 65 years old, and I think that we need some young voices that are coming up with new ideas and some new thoughts.”
Three Names, No Endorsement
Clooney said he also likes Pritzker and Beshear, but he pointedly declined to choose among them. He would not endorse anybody until the midterms are behind him, he said — which means no candidate carries his backing at this stage, not Ossoff, not Pritzker, not Beshear.
Pressed on whether he might run himself, Clooney said he would “absolutely not” join the race, adding that seeking public office is not in his plans at all. The standard he set for the field is about age: he said he would happily line up behind nearly anyone running, provided the person is not his age or older. He also pointed to his own standing within the party, noting that he has been raising money since 1988 and calling himself the biggest Democratic fundraiser there has ever been.
Ossoff, 39, matches the description Clooney laid out. His 2021 election in Georgia made him the youngest person to win a Senate seat in more than four decades, dating back to 1980, along with being the chamber’s first senator born during the 1980s and its first millennial member.
The 2024 Op-Ed That Still Follows Him
Clooney’s focus on age is nothing new for him. He published a New York Times opinion piece in July 2024 that called on then-President Joe Biden, 81 at the time, to step out of the presidential race. It appeared after Biden’s heavily panned debate showing against Donald Trump, now the president, and in it Clooney wrote that the Biden he had been with at a fundraiser three weeks earlier was the same man the country had just watched debate.
Biden — now 83 — announced 11 days after the piece appeared that he was leaving the race, throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris, 61, lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College to Trump.
Party memories of that intervention linger. Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took aim at Clooney over the op-ed in her memoir in October 2025, contending that his status as an A-list Hollywood star and a self-described proud Democrat made his view carry enormous weight with the press and the public.
What He Told CNN in April 2025
His comments in Venice arrive roughly 17 months after he discussed the fallout from 2024 on television. During an interview that aired on CNN on April 16, 2025, Clooney argued that Democrats should have staged a primary once Biden was out of the race, and he characterized Harris’s campaign as burdened by its links to the administration. He used the same conversation to praise Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for his response to the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse. Beshear was mentioned then, as well.
Clooney has spent decades as a fundraising draw for Democratic candidates, which gives the three names he chose to say out loud in Venice more weight than a typical celebrity aside.
Where the Forecasters Have Landed
Clooney’s shortlist does not match the handicappers’. In April 2025, statistician Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, and Galen Druke, a former FiveThirtyEight podcast host, both named progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the most likely Democratic nominee in 2028, with Druke citing her favorability numbers and Silver pointing to polling, her progressive lane and her media savvy. Neither Ossoff nor Pritzker was among their top picks.
For now, the actor is offering enthusiasm rather than a commitment: three Democrats he likes, a generational standard for the field, no endorsement until after November’s midterms — and no candidacy of his own.