Heard on the Hill

Word on the Hill: Are You Registered?

Katy Perry releases video promoting voting in November

Members, groups and celebrities want to make sure you're registered to vote. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Members, groups and celebrities want to make sure you're registered to vote. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
By Alex Gangitano
Posted September 28, 2016 at 5:00am

For National Voter Registration Day, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., pushed for people to vote, in the best way he could. On Tuesday, he tweeted, “Today is #NationalVoterRegistrationDay — I was beaten, left bloody & unconscious so that every person could register and vote. Do your part.”

If that doesn’t leave you running to sign up to vote, I don’t know what would.

Other members also took to social media to push voter registration following Monday’s steamy debate.

Staffer shuffle

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s new Democratic staff director is Jessica Lewis, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., will officially announce today. Lewis is currently the national security adviser for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Katy Perry says you can vote looking like s—

Katy Perry teamed up with Funny or Die in a new parody video to encourage people to vote. “November 8th is Election Day and I’ve got some great news,” she says. “This year, you can look like s— when you vote. Yup, I briefly scanned the Constitution and nowhere does it say you can’t just roll out of bed and come to the polls in whatever state you woke up in.”

She then takes off her clothes at a mock voting booth and gets arrested. Perry has publicly announced her support for Hillary Clinton and performed at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

Planned Parenthood wants you to register, too

Thirty-six Planned Parenthood affiliates across 30 states marked National Voter Registration Day by going out to college campuses and their own health centers to get people signed up to vote. Their goal was to register thousands of voters, “regardless of background, beliefs, or political ideology,” the group said in a press release.

And, Voto Latino released a movie about registering

The nonprofit voter mobilization group, Voto Latino, launched a video ahead of National Voter Registration Day to urge young Latinos to register and vote and to highlight the power of the Latino electorate. The video is entitled, “Ganas,” meaning “Desire.”

Overheard

“If your position is, ‘I don’t trust Paul Ryan,’ that’s like, ‘I don’t trust the Boy Scouts.”

– Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., speaking about Democrats who say they don’t trust Republican promises that aid to Flint, Michigan, will be dealt with in a Water Resources Development Act conference report.

“Like they say in the Nike ad, ‘Just do it.’”

– Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., on including Flint aid in the CR.

Happy birthday to…

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., 59.

Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Fla., 57.

What’s going on?

Have any tips, announcements or Hill happenings? Send them to AlexGangitano@cqrollcall.com.

Lindsey McPherson and Bridget Bowman contributed to this report.