Scandal star campaigns for Hillary Clinton in Fredericksburg

Scandal star campaigns for Hillary Clinton in Fredericksburg; see also.

By JEFF BRANSCOME THE FREE LANCE-STAR | Posted: Friday, August 26, 2016 6:07 pm

Clinton House Party

Actress Bellamy Young (left) and former undersecretary of state Judith McHale (right) speak during the Fredericksburg Women for Hillary House Party in Fredericksburg on Friday.

A television actress who plays a former first lady running for president campaigned for—yes, you guessed it—Hillary Clinton in Fredericksburg on Friday, touting the real-life candidate as a “sweet, trustful human.”

“Our choices are very clear,” actress Bellamy Young, 46, told the gathering at the Fredericksburg Women for Hillary House Party on William Street. “The issues that matter to you—gun violence, racial equality, women’s issues, growing the economy—whatever they are, it’s very clear which candidate you will support. And I choose love and inclusivity. So I choose Hillary.”

Young plays Mellie Grant, an ex-first lady and Republican Virginia senator who is running for president, on the hit TV series “Scandal” on ABC. She was joined in Fredericksburg by Judith A. McHale, a former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, six days after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Fredericksburg.

“I think one of the reasons both of us are here is because they know Virginia is such a critical state, and it is going to be one of the bellwether states, clearly,” McHale said.

Young, who also made stops in Prince William County, said it won’t be an easy election for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. “You think it’s going to be a no-brainer because it seems so clear, but it’s going to be slippery because fact has no bearing on the discussion anymore.”

McHale refuted Trump’s statements questioning Clinton’s “mental and physical stamina,” saying: “She’s got the most robust health of anyone.”

Trump has also made pitches to African–American voters in recent days, saying at the Fredericksburg rally that “we reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.”

McHale called Trump’s remarks to black voters “deeply offensive on so many levels.”

Fredericksburg resident Shelley Pineo-Jensen attended the Women for Hillary event in Fredericksburg despite supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary. She said she now supports Clinton because of the candidate’s opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

But she added: “She needs to be stronger on these progressive issues.”

Young said she was “first awed” by Clinton when the presidential contender was a first lady pushing for health care reform. She said she was interested in politics growing up in North Carolina,“but never felt part of a government because I was a girl.”

In a brief interview with The Free Lance–Star, Young said it was “a little surreal” to be playing a character who, like Clinton, is a former first lady running for president.

“But ... I am always in awe that Hillary Clinton’s doing it for real,” she said. “I am just doing it on TV.”

She laughed when asked who would make a better president, her character Mellie Grant or Clinton.

“I think Hillary has a lot more experience than Mellie does. But you know, never underestimate Mellie—she’ll always find a way.”