BOX TICKING

Harry and Meghan Reveal 2024 U.S. Election Strategy—but Not Their Candidate

“Let’s make sure every eligible voter is informed and empowered to participate in shaping America’s future,” an unsigned statement on their Archewell website says.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have no plans to publicly endorse a presidential candidate at this time, the Daily Beast understands.

This echoes claims, first reported in the Telegraph, that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will remain “publicly neutral” in the forthcoming election—despite the couple tangling publicly with Donald Trump in the past, with the former president suggesting in March that Harry could be deported from the US over the drug use he divulged in his blockbuster memoir Spare.

Instead, a statement on the couple’s Archewell Foundation website in honor of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday relayed that its team has written “personalized letters encouraging unregistered voters to take a crucial step: registering to vote.”

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“Voting is not just a right; it’s a fundamental way to influence the fate of our communities,” the unsigned statement continues. “At The Archewell Foundation, we recognize that civic engagement, no matter one’s political party, is at the heart of a more just and equitable world. By participating in initiatives like this, we aim to amplify the message that every voice matters.”

The website then supplies links to Vote Forward’s website and Vote.gov.

“Together, let’s make sure every eligible voter is informed and empowered to participate in shaping America’s future,” its message concludes.

In March, Trump told Nigel Farage in a GB News interview, when asked what he would do if allegations that Harry may have lied on his visa forms about his past drug use proved accurate: “We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”

Farage asked if “appropriate action” could mean “not staying in America,” to which Trump replied, according to a report on the outlet’s website, “Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago.”

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In 2020, after they had moved to California following their exit from their senior royal family roles, Harry and Meghan did not endorse Joe Biden or Trump, but aroused Trump’s ire by making some pointed remarks about rejecting bigotry.

“Every four years, we are told the same thing, that ‘This is the most important election of our lifetime.’ But this one is,” Meghan said. “When we vote, our values are put into action and our voices are heard. Your voice is a reminder that you matter. Because you do. And you deserve to be heard.”

Harry, sitting beside his wife, added: “This election, I’m not going to be able to vote here in the U.S. But many of you may not know that I haven't been able to vote in the U.K. my entire life. As we approach this November, it’s vital that we reject hate speech, misinformation, and online negativity.”

Their remarks also provoked a debate about how suitable it was for either of them to make political remarks of any kind.

Famed feminist, and friend of Meghan, Gloria Steinem, told Access Hollywood that Meghan was cold-calling voters: “She came home to vote. The first thing we did, and why she came to see me, was we sat at the dining room table where I am right now and we cold-called voters... That was her initiative.”

Trump responded to the video by saying of Meghan: “I’m not a fan of hers … I wish a lot of luck to Harry. He’s gonna need it.” There have been occasional rumors of Meghan’s own ambition for a political life—in 2023, after the death of California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s death that Meghan the Mail reported that Meghan “could throw her hat in the ring to serve out the remaining 13 months of Feinstein’s term.” (It didn’t happen.)

Before his state visit to the U.K. in 2019, then-President Trump was asked what he thought of Meghan calling him “misogynistic” and “divisive” before she had married into the royal family.

Trump told The Sun he had not known he wouldn’t be meeting Meghan on his visit (this was when she and Harry were still senior members of the Firm). “I didn’t know that… No, I hope she is OK. I didn’t know that, no,” Trump said. “So, what can I say? No, I didn’t know that she was nasty.”

However, Trump added of Meghan becoming a royal family member, “I am sure she will do excellently. She will be very good.”

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Tim TeemanSenior Editor and Writer

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