--- title: Donald Trump: Celebrities Urge Electoral College to Dump Him description: A band of celebrities teamed up to create a video urging Republican members of the Electoral College vote "your conscience." canonical: https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-15T14:34:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:15.616Z article:section: Politics og:title: These Celebrities Are Urging the Electoral College to Dump Donald Trump og:description: Martin Sheen, Debra Messing and others teamed up in a new video og:url: https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c483c4cfe03a3f6/6988b31086f68ef5086e2f4b/celebrities-vote-against-trump-electoral-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4454 og:image:height: 2505 og:image:alt: celebrities vote against trump electoral college og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Celebrities Are Urging the Electoral College to Dump Donald Trump twitter:description: Martin Sheen, Debra Messing and others teamed up in a new video twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c483c4cfe03a3f6/6988b31086f68ef5086e2f4b/celebrities-vote-against-trump-electoral-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Celebrities Are Urging the Electoral College to Dump Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Dec 15, 2016 2:34 PM UTC  PASADENA, CA - APRIL 30: Actor Martin Sheen serves as a presenter at The Pasadena Playhouse Gala Honoring Jane Fonda and Richard Perry at Pasadena Playhouse on April 30, 2016 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images,) PASADENA, CA - APRIL 30: Actor Martin Sheen serves as a presenter at The Pasadena Playhouse Gala Honoring Jane Fonda and Richard Perry at Pasadena Playhouse on April 30, 2016 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images,) Earl Gibson III—Getty Images,  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Dec 15, 2016 2:34 PM UTC A band of celebrities teamed up to create a video urging Republican members of [the Electoral College](http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/) to vote “your conscience”—not for President-elect Donald Trump The ensemble, including [Martin Sheen](http://time.com/4465252/martin-sheen-we-days/), Debra Messing, Bob Odenkrik and BD Wong, urged the electors to [choose someone else](http://time.com/4597387/faithless-electors-donald-trump/) in the Electoral College vote on Dec. 19\. Trump is expected to surpass the 270 votes necessary to become president after [winning 306 electoral votes](http://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/) on election day, but in the newly released video, the celebrities implored 37 voters to keep that from happening. “You have the position, the authority, and the opportunity to go down in the books as an American hero who changed the course of history,” the celebrities say. In the unlikely event that Trump does not receive 270 votes, the election [would be sent to the House of Representatives](http://time.com/4560682/faithless-electors/) for a vote in January. [_Read More:_ What Happens If Faithless Electors Swing the Results?](http://time.com/4560682/faithless-electors/) Sheen opens the video with a speech channeling President Bartlet, his character on _The West Wing,_ explaining the purpose of the Electoral College: “As you know, our founding fathers built the Electoral College to safeguard the American people from the dangers of a demagogue, and to ensure that the presidency only goes to someone who is to ‘an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.'” The group [Unite for America](https://www.uniteforamerica.org/) posted the video on YouTube. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/"},"headline":"These Celebrities Are Urging the Electoral College to Dump Donald Trump","datePublished":"2016-12-15T14:34:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:15.616Z","description":"Martin Sheen, Debra Messing, Bob Odenkirk and more teamed up in a new video","url":"https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","celebrities","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c483c4cfe03a3f6/6988b31086f68ef5086e2f4b/celebrities-vote-against-trump-electoral-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c483c4cfe03a3f6/6988b31086f68ef5086e2f4b/celebrities-vote-against-trump-electoral-college.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"celebrities vote against trump electoral college","caption":"celebrities vote against trump electoral college","creditText":"Earl Gibson III—Getty Images,","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4603254/celebrities-electoral-college-donald-trump-video/","name":"These Celebrities Are Urging the Electoral College to Dump Donald Trump"}}]}] ```