California-born British royal Meghan Markle is reported to be cold-calling American senators and advocating for parental leave.
"I'm in my car. I'm driving. It says 'caller ID blocked'… And she goes 'Senator Capito?' I said, 'Yes'. She said, 'This is Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex'. I couldn't figure out how she got my number", Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia recalled in an interview with Politico Playbook earlier this week.
Capito is not the only Republican senator who got a call from the "American royal". Sen. Susan Collins from Maine also discussed parental leave with Markle.
"She introduced herself as the Duchess of Sussex, which is kind of ironic", the senator told Politico reporter Marianne LeVine, admitting afterwards that although she "was happy to talk" with Meghan, she remains "more interested in what the people of Maine are telling [her] about it".
Fight for Parental Leave
The drama surrounding parental leave emerged late last month after Joe Biden threw it out of his landmark $3.5 trillion social spending package along with some other measures in order to reduce the bill to $1.75 trillion. Biden's decision prompted an outcry from progressive activists. For her part, the Duchess of Sussex on 20 October penned an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging them to put parental leave back in the bill.
It's unclear what convinced the two top Democrats more, Markle's letter or the progressives' ire, but on 3 November Pelosi announced that she would insert four weeks of paid family leave into the House’s reconciliation bill.
Sen. Kirsten Gilibrand (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday told Politico that she had given senators' numbers to Markle.
"I talked to each of the women senators and let them know that she's going to reach out, because she only completed two of the calls", Gilibrand said, revealing that the duchess "wants to be part of a working group to work on paid leave long term".
Meanwhile, the major obstacle in the Dems' path for passing the bill is not so much the Republicans, but moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who is opposing the inclusion of parental leave in Biden's revamped proposal. Manchin's voice remains crucial in the evenly split upper chamber. Apparently therefore, Markle is reaching out to GOP senators to win more support for parental leave and Biden's Build Back Better initiative, the US media suggests.
Republicans Tell Meghan Markle to ‘Stick to Acting’ After ‘Out-of-Touch’ Intervention in US Politics
22 October 2021, 09:49 GMT
Will US Lawmakers Lend a Sympathetic Ear to the Duchess?
"It's unlikely that Meghan Markle will have any influence at all on whether or not the legislation passes, even if lawmakers on Capitol Hill will take her calls out of politeness", says Professor Robert Singh, specialist in contemporary US politics at Birkbeck, University of London.
However, that isn't really the point, according to him: "As ever with Markle and Prince Harry, the point is their relentless self-promotion and making money", Singh believes.
The professor notes that given Markle's "endless narcissism and elevated sense of global and historic self-importance", she "probably does think that a stellar political career awaits".
The Daily Mail broke on 13 March that the duchess is reportedly considering tossing her hat into the ring of the US 2024 presidential election. The media outlet noted that Markle was interacting with senior Democrats with an alleged aim of building a campaign and fundraising teams.
"[Meghan Markle and Prince Harry] have important contacts in the Democratic Party such as the Clintons and also are friendly with top celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and Serena Williams", says Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator and consultant. "In America this counts for a lot, they made one of the covers of Time magazine when it launched its list of the top 100 people globally".
Fitzwilliams recalls that Markle has been an activist from the age of 11. At that time, Meghan wrote a letter to Hillary Clinton asking for help when she found a TV advertisement to be sexist. Decades later, the politician repeatedly supported the duchess, bemoaning the "cruelty" of the "British tabloids" going after her.
Still, it wouldn't be easy for Meghan to win the hearts and minds of US lawmakers and ordinary Americans, according to the observers.
"Whether the Democrats really want to nominate an intellectually underwhelming former C-list movie actress whose main claim to fame is marrying a British prince and spouting psychobabble is unclear", says Robert Singh. "Americans had a little revolution in 1776 to get rid of British monarchs, so electing the 'feminist' wife of a money-grabbing royal in 2024 or sometime thereafter might be a difficult sell to 'Joe Six-Pack' in Idaho".
In addition to this, Meghan and Harry are extremely controversial when it comes to their family affairs, which additionally tarnish their image in the eyes of Americans, according to Richard Fitzwilliams.
"Meghan is estranged, however understandably, from her own family, save for her mother and from the royal family", says Fitzwilliams. "This does not look good for a would-be philanthropist. Their highly contentious interview on Oprah won wide support in the US at the time but proven inaccuracies in it may yet haunt her".
Although her support for paid parental leave is an admirable cause, it remains unclear whether it will help the Democrats in any way and how Americans would regard her involvement in their politics, the royal commentator concludes.