Ben Affleck Confirms What We Suspected About A Potential Political Future

Hollywood has its fair share of celebs who promote political causes, particularly on social media. Ben Affleck, however, has set himself apart from that crowd by actively campaigning for Democratic presidential candidates on the ground. In 2000, the "Good Will Hunting" star attended rallies in support of Al Gore and even adorned an expensive leather jacket with the candidate's ticket sticker. "You gotta sacrifice for the cause. It's a $3,000 Armani but I'd throw it to the ground and step on it for Al Gore," Affleck told The Associated Press (via the Kitsap Sun) at the time. 

Later, Affleck showed he was serious about his involvement with the Democratic Party when he worked on John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. Affleck stood next to Kerry and his candidate for vice president, Sen. John Edwards, when he gave his first speech after accepting the Democratic nomination, as The Times-Tribune reported.

Given Affleck's political enthusiasm, many believed the actor and director was gearing up to run for office later on. Speculation peaked in 2012, when Kerry was appointed Secretary of State in the Barack Obama administration, leaving his Senate seat up for grabs. After hinting that he might run, Affleck decided to pass on the opportunity to represent Massachusetts, the state in which he grew up, the Daily News reported. "There are some phenomenal candidates in Massachusetts for his Senate seat. I look forward to an amazing campaign," he said. Now, Affleck is once again sharing insight into his political aspirations. 

Ben Affleck has no intention of running for Congress — in fact, he believes the job would be "depressing," as he told The Boston Globe in a January 6 interview. "I looked at the life of people in Congress and it was a constant process of glad-handing, begging for money, and being beholden to people. It's so depressing. I thought it was miserable and corrupt and ugly," he said. 

After deciding against running for John Kerry's Senate seat in 2012, the "Argo" star and director was once again called in 2018 to challenge Representative Michael Capuano, who was defeated by Ayanna Pressley, the first Black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress, as The Boston Globe previously noted. Affleck is glad he didn't run against Pressley. "She probably would have beat my [expletive]," he shared. "Even though she's from Ohio, I have a feeling she would have cleaned my clock."

Instead, Affleck opted to express his political prowess through different means. In 2010, Affleck launched the Eastern Congo Initiative to raise awareness and funds for the war-torn African nation. "When I went I found places where there was complete impunity ... places where two out of three women had been raped ... the gender-based statistics moved me as a husband and as a father," Affleck, then married to Jennifer Garner, said told CBS in 2012. As far as politics go, the initiative has his sole attention, he told the Globe. "That's what I do."