Eva Longoria encourages all to vote in the upcoming election. The multifaceted star was the latest guest on Debra Messing and Mandana Dayani’s Dear Media podcast The Dissenters, where she explained the importance of standing up and “speaking for yourself” at the polls.
“I actually think Latino millennials are super engaged…They are woke,” Longoria expressed, adding that she wants even more people, not just Latinxs, get more involved in politics.
“How do we engage people? My life’s philosophy is not to not to speak up for women. I’m not speaking for women. I’m not speaking for Latinos. I’m telling you, speak for yourselves, stand up and speak for yourself,” Longoria relayed. “The best way to do that is to vote! Because the only time we are equal with the richest one percent and the poorest is in the voting booth. Both our vote is equal.”
The former Desperate Housewives star, however, believes that it takes “some inspirational people” to get people to the polls.
“You know, the way [former President Barack] Obama just aggregated hope, like that was an intangible thing, but yet he did it,” Longoria recalled. “I don’t remember a time the country felt so good to be American and proud.”
“I think kindness is such a big word and we need to infuse it back into society,” she continued. “But I wish people would educate themselves. The family separation [situation at the border] is a big, big, heartbreaking thing. If I could take every mother in America down to the border it would change your minds. It would! They would say, ‘Oh my god.’ As a mother, I can never imagine this. Not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, not a blue state or a red state, but as a woman. And as a mother, you can’t imagine the atrocities.”
Longoria has been a longtime supporter of Voto Latino. During the midterm election, she, alongside Voto Latino co-founder Rosario Dawson, America Ferrera, Zoe Saldana and Gina Rodriguez rallied in Miami in 2018 to encourage Latinos to vote. She’s also been vocal about the upcoming election on her social media platforms.
