Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Host Panel With Democratic Women Governors During DNC (Exclusive)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is teaming up with the Democratic Governors Association during the week of the 2024 Democratic National Convention to highlight the country’s women governors.

The Emmy-winning Veep and Seinfeld star, producer and activist will host a daytime panel on Aug. 21, which will be the third day of the upcoming four-day convention in Chicago. Joining her will be the country’s eight Democratic women governors: Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.

“I’m honored to host this conversation with America’s Democratic women governors while our party comes together to celebrate in Chicago,” says Louis-Dreyfus in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Throughout their time in office, Democratic women governors have made history, changed the conversation surrounding women in executive roles, and gotten big things done for the good people of their states. They’ve shattered marble ceilings and demonstrated excellent leadership. Their voices are essential. I’m looking forward to our conversation and the opportunity to shine the spotlight on these accomplished leaders.”

The event comes as Veep is experiencing a summer resurgence, both on social media and in viewership — the series saw a whopping 350 percent jump in viewers following the July 21 announcement that President Joe Biden would not be seeking reelection, elevating Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket for the 2024 presidential race. The real-life events so closely mirrored plotlines on Veep — HBO’s Emmy-winning political satire that ran for seven seasons with Louis-Dreyfus playing a first female VP-turned-first female POTUS — that Louis-Dreyfus, creator Armando Ianucci and showrunner David Mandel have all weighed in on the Veep-surgence and how memes from the show have been recirculated amid Harris’ campaign.

“Female candidates are more scrutinized,” Louis-Dreyfus recently said of the comparisons being made between Harris and her fictional character, Selina Meyer. “That is the reality and we played into it and used it to our comedic advantage. There is an episode in which a character suggests Selina open a speech with ‘As a woman’ and she said, ‘I can’t identify as a woman! People can’t know that! Men hate that and women who hate women hate that, which I believe is most women.’ So we used that for a lot of fodder.”

The panel of governors — who represent over 43 million Americans across the country — have led the way on a number of key issues, including growing their economies, expanding access to health care and child care, increasing funding for public education, cutting taxes for hard working families, making higher education more affordable, tackling the housing and the mental health crises and protecting and expanding reproductive rights. 

The eight women have forged a friendship in their rarified positions, with the governors sharing meals, quick walk-and-talks, and thoughts and emotional support via a group chat, as they revealed in a recent Elle feature.

The Louis-Dreyfus-hosted conversation will cover this historic class of women as state executives, as well as the DGA Women Governors Fund. Since 2018, the DGA has invested more than $80 million in states and campaigns to elect and re-elect this group, also launching the Women Governors Fund dedicated to electing Democratic women governors.

“Julia Louis-Dreyfus brings the same passion and intensity that drives her successful career on-screen to her projects off of it, including her decades of work as an advocate and activist fighting to protect abortion rights, voting rights and democracy and fighting to combat climate change,” says DGA Women Governors Fund chair Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “We share a mutual goal of supporting and electing more female candidates to all levels of government — including for governor, Congress, and, of course, for president — but we know all too well that female candidates face more obstacles to higher office than their male counterparts. As Democratic women governors, we have changed what it means — and looks like — to be a state executive.”