That’s right, if Jane Fonda shows up on the doorstep, it really is the 86-year-old, two-time Academy Award winning actress.
Ms. Fonda says she wants to listen, have a conversation and explain why she is going to door-to-door and the reasons, “the work feels so necessary in Arizona.”
Fonda told a crowd of enthusiastic canvassers in North Phoenix outside an office suite tucked along the Piestewa Freeway Saturday morning, “Besides Arizona—this is the one, isn’t it? But I think we’re gonna flip Arizona, we gotta get a trifecta, that’s why we’re here—well, we’re here because of these three ladies,” pointing to and hugging Arizona House and Senate candidates, Karen Gresham, Kelli Butler and Christine Marsh.”
“If we’re not going to be able to stabilize our climate, it’s going to be hard to do anything else —and we have to do this fast, we don’t have four years to lose now.”
Fonda told the crowd of walkers ready to hit the upscale North Phoenix neighborhood, that “the climate danger in Arizona breaks her heart”—the fear over water, drought, and heat related climate issues in the desert, too little solar panels on homes in the Valley of the Sun and an uncertain climate future she says, “need action now.”
“You’re doing the most important thing anybody can do—to show up, in person, on someone’s doorstep means you think this is really important and it makes people pay attention,” Fonda said.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve done a lot of canvassing and I get scared, it’s hard to do, or people don’t know me, or they think they know me or they’re all over the place about me (laughing)—but you learn, you learn so much, but you have to show up 100%, you can’t fake it. I know about faking it as an actor—you can’t. Show up and just be the world that you’re fighting for. Question people, but question from your heart, show up with love, really—whether they agree with you or not, find out what they want and what they need. You can bond in a short amount of time. Try to tell people something they may not know,” Fonda said.
In a funny moment during her speech one member of the media moved in a little too close with his camera and Fonda said, “Don’t get quite so close, I’m old, and a little vain,” the crowd roared with laughter.
The necessary work Fonda described to a mix of people of all ages with some in attendance telling Northeast Valley News they consider Fonda to be an American hero and have followed both her acting and activism for decades. The canvassers had already been knocking on doors for weeks but were inspired by the actor’s words and said it fueled them for the remaining days ahead of Nov. 5.
Ms. Fonda feels so strongly about the vital “on the ground local political work” she informed her agent a year ago she would not be taking on any acting jobs in order to hit the campaign trail on behalf of local candidates in several states who support action on climate change.
She has hand-picked over 130 lower-level candidates who will stand up to the fossil fuel industry using her political action committee, JanePAC.
Karen Gresham and Kelli Butler, both running for seats in the Az. State House and Christine Marsh for re-election in the Az. State Senate are among some of Fonda’s strongest candidate endorsements.
All three Az. candidates stand for what Fonda sees as the qualities needed to move climate action, water conservation and environmental sustainability forward. She called the women, “champions for climate.”
“This is the last election that can have a major effect on climate,” Fonda said.
Reportedly, Fonda is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, believing the Harris-Walz ticket would fight for climate solutions and make progress on ambitious targets like cutting our fossil fuel emissions in half by the end of the decade.
