An actor hoping to be elected to the Senate next year has claimed he was offered $20million to run for the House instead to try to unseat Rashida Tlaib.
Hill Harper, 57, star of The Good Doctor and CSI:NY, is campaigning as a Democrat to represent Michigan in the Senate, replacing the retiring Debbie Stabenow.
But Harper, who has never run for office before, said he was approached by a Michigan businessman with an offer to challenge Tlaib, his fellow Michigan Democrat.
Harper tweeted he ‘didn’t intend for a private phone call to turn public’ – but confirmed Politico’s reporting of the October 16 call.
The site reported Linden Nelson, a wealthy Michigan businessman and donor to both parties, called Harper asking him to drop out of the Senate race to fight Tlaib.
Hill Harper, best known for his roles in The Good Doctor and CSI:NY, is pictured on November 21 on the campaign trail in River Rouge, Michigan. He is hoping to get elected to the Senate next year representing the state in DC
Linden Nelson, a Michigan businessman, called Harper and asked him to consider challenging Rashida Tlaib for her seat, Politico reported
Rashida Tlaib is seen on November 13 calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war
Nelson is involved in businesses across Detroit, mainly in real estate.
He built a film studio in Pontiac, Motown Motion Pictures, but it closed when film subsidies ended.
Nelson’s fortune was made through advertising in the 1980s, when he sold Ford on the idea of detachable key rings for parking valets, and then went on to make promotional items for companies such as AT&T and Harley-Davidson.
Nelson offered Harper $10 million in bundled contributions directly to Harper’s campaign, and $10 million in independent expenditures, Politico reported.
Nelson has not commented on the report.
Harper said that he said no to Nelson – who has previously donated to a group seeking to unseat Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, and has a history of involvement with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
‘I didn’t intend for a private phone call to turn public. But now that it has, here’s the truth,’ tweeted Harper.
‘One of AIPAC’s biggest donors offered $20m if I dropped out of the U.S. Senate race to run against @RashidaTlaib.
‘I said no. I won’t be bossed, bullied, or bought.’
AIPAC’s spokesperson denied any involvement in the effort to challenge Tlaib, and said Nelson had not donated to AIPAC in years.
Marshall Wittmann said that the group ‘was absolutely not involved in any way in this matter.’
He added: ‘Also, our records indicate that this individual has not contributed to AIPAC in over a decade.’
Harper said the call showed why the public had such little faith in politics.
‘For me, this isn’t about one person or one phone call. It’s about a broken political and campaign finance system that’s tilted towards the wealthy and powerful,’ he said.
‘I’m running for the U.S. Senate because I believe the wealthy and powerful have too much representation in Washington.
‘I’ve been fortunate: I’ve had a successful acting career, and I’m not someone who grew up thinking I wanted to be a politician.
‘I’m not just running for the title. I’m not going to run against the only Palestinian-American in Congress just because some special interests don’t like her.
‘I’m running because I want to break the stranglehold wealthy special interests have on our politics, whether it’s the Israel lobby, the NRA or Big Pharma.’
Tlaib has not addressed the story, but has found herself increasingly targeted for her staunch support for the Palestinian cause.
The Detroit-born politician’s failure to immediately condemn Hamas’ October 7 attacks, even as her fellow ‘Squad’ members Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out, poured more fuel on the fire.
In an interview with the Detroit Free Press four days later she described the attack as ‘a war crime just like the collective punishment of Palestinians right now is a war crime.’