Dwayne Johnson, star of the "Fast and Furious” action movies, and former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge, a former GOP governor of Pennsylvania, both endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president on Sunday. And Biden holds his lead over President Donald Trump in two national polls with help from women.
Action star Johnson, also known as the Rock, created a buzz Sunday by endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Biden over Trump in an Instagram post.
The former pro wrestler, who has 199 million followers on the social media site, said it was his first public presidential endorsement.
"I’ve voted for Democrats in the past and as well as Republican,” wrote, Johnson, 48, describing himself as a political independent and a centrist who has "friends in all parties.”
"I believe Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the best to lead our country,” said Johnson, adding that he spoke with the Democratic candidates "on a number of important issues” before making the announcement.
Johnson’s seven-minute Instagram video, including parts of the dialogue with Biden and Harris, had been viewed 1.8 million times by 11 a.m. Eastern Time.
Tom Ridge, a Republican who was President George W. Bush’s homeland security secretary and governor of Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, also endorsed Biden Sunday.
Ridge, 75, said he’s never voted for a Democrat for president before but that Trump "lacks the empathy, integrity, intellect and maturity to lead.”
"It’s time to put country over party,” Ridge wrote in an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Biden held a lead over Trump among potential voters nationally, according to two polls conducted in the past few days, while other surveys showed Biden ahead in key swing states and running close in others.
In a poll by the Washington Post and ABC News, Biden had a 10 percentage point advantage over Trump. Biden’s lead was eight points in another survey conducted by the New York Times and Siena College.
Biden was up by two points in North Carolina, 48% to 46%, in a CBS poll, while Trump was ahead by just a point, 47% to 46%, in Georgia. In both cases, the results were within the margin of error.
NBC/Marist polls showed Biden up by 10 points in Wisconsin and eight points in Michigan, two key Midwestern states won by Trump in 2016 on his way to the White House. In both states, strong support from women gave Biden the edge.
