Cline and Hollywood: the real story

It’s become a standard trope of Republicans. They accuse their Democratic opponents of depending on support from a leftwing “Hollywood elite” which is out of touch with regular folks.

So it was with Congressman Cline in a recent interview with 29News, discussing his Democratic challenger in the November election: journalist and author Beth Macy.

“She has Hollywood support on her side,” Cline said. “She’s been able to raise more money than I have. And that’s okay. She can have Hollywood. I’ll take the voters of the Sixth District on my side.”

Now the facts:

Macy served as an executive producer and co-writer for the Hulu series Dopesick, based on her 2018 bestselling nonfiction book, about the role of big pharmaceutical companies in creating the opioid crisis that has ravaged Appalachia. Macy made sure Appalachian communities were portrayed honestly and without stereotypes.

After Macy announced her candidacy for Congress last year, she was endorsed by actor Michael Keaton, who had a leading role in Dopesick. In the endorsement, Keaton, who lost a nephew to addiction, refers to the massive defunding of Medicaid, which Cline supported.

As for Hollywood: The Dopesick series was not filmed there, but largely in Clifton Forge and Covington,Virginia and surrounding Alleghany County. They are part of the Sixth Congressional District currently represented by Cline. The location filming provided more of an economic boost to those communities than anything Cline has done since he entered Congress in 2019. As a producer, Macy lobbied hard for the filming to be done in Virginia.

But here’s the irony: It is Cline, not Macy, who has benefited from the largesse of “Hollywood.”

If we define “Hollywood” as the entertainment industry, Hollywood’s political action committees have donated at least $21,000 to Cline’s campaigns since 2018.

Here’s the evidence from the Cline campaign’s filings with the Federal Election Commission:

Sony

Motion Picture Association

Paramount Global

Universal Music Group

Disney

(Disney is the parent company of Hulu, which carried Dopesick.)

Beth Macy’s Congressional campaign has received thousands of donations, most of them small, but none from the entertainment industry PACs—or any other corporate PACs, for that matter. Unlike Cline, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from corporate PACs, Macy refuses to accept them.

For many years Cline took campaign donations from Abbott Laboratories, which sent representatives into small towns like Clifton Forge and Covington to sell the lie that Oxycontin wasn’t addictive.

So which candidate is the favorite of big money—including big Hollywood money? Hint: It’s not Beth Macy.

Cline promises 22 town halls

After holding only one brief and limited in-person town hall during all of 2025, and none so far in 2026, Congressman Cline told 29News that he is “planning to hold another town hall in all 22 localities” in the Sixth District.

Will these promised town halls occur this year? Will they be open to all constituents? If there is a registration process, will it be less confusing than the one in Lexington last September? I hope the local media will follow up.

Meanwhile, when and if the town halls are actually scheduled, Cline Watch will provide all the details that are publicly available.

Cline’s Fairfax County obsession

In recent days Congressman Cline has displayed a strange obsession with Fairfax County, Virginia.

I say “strange” because Fairfax County is not part of the Sixth Congressional District, which Cline purports to represent. On his Facebook page, he has had a lot more to say about Fairfax County (all negative) than about any location in the Sixth.

At a Congressional hearing last week, Cline demanded the resignation of Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and engaged in his longstanding practice of demonizing “illegal immigrants.”

Cline focused on the tragic case of Stephanie Minter, who was murdered in February by an undocumented immigrant from Sierra Leone. (See here, here and here.) While there are legitimate concerns about the circumstances that led to the murder, Cline used the case as an excuse for hysterical fearmongering.

Cline’s statement is a lie. As James Walkinshaw, who represents Fairfax in Congress, posted in response:

(For more on Cline and COPS, see here.)

If that wasn’t bad enough, Cline posted on his campaign Facebook page:

In fact, the Migration Policy Institute estimates the number unauthorized people in Fairfax at less than half that. But never mind.

Cline is referring to the April 21 redistricting referendum, which voters approved before the Virginia Supreme Court struck it down. As he well knows, it is illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal and state elections and Democrats are not trying to change that.

But this is the kind of scaremongering that Cline indulges in as he tries to hang on to his Congressional seat for another term.

Demonic Cline

After the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the results of the April redistricting referendum, Congressman Cline thought it was appropriate to post a new profile picture on his Congressional Facebook page.

What is he trying to tell us? That his demonic powers forced a narrowly-divided Supreme Court to override the will of the majority of Virginia voters?

If he thinks the court’s ruling means he is home free for reelection in 2026, he’s got another thing coming.

Cline desperation watch

“86” does not mean what Trump and his sycophants like Congressman Cline want us to believe it means. Trump’s Department of Justice tried to give it a different meaning when it made its laughable indictment against former FBI director James Comey for posting a picture of some seashells.

On that note, references to “86 46” abounded during Joe Biden’s term. Right-wing provocateur Jack Posobiec in 2022 posted that exact message on Twitter, though he was never indicted because that would of course have been ridiculous. To this day, merchandise like T-shirts are sold on Amazon and elsewhere featuring the “86 46” message, and of course, no one has taken that as any kind of threat to the former president’s life.

We know you’re desperate. But give it a rest, Ben.

After his redistricting loss, Cline fights on

Before the victory of the YES campaign for redistricting– which could end his Congressional career– Congressman Cline scrambled all over Virginia and posted frequently and frantically on his campaign Facebook page urging a NO vote.

Nearly 48 hours after his previous post, Cline emerged to announce that he is the lead plaintiff in the court case seeking to overturn the will of the majority of Virginia voters.

At least he isn’t claiming that the vote was “rigged,” as Trump falsely did.

As for his claim that the redistricting “reduces the voices of rural Virginians”: Were Cline and other Republican representatives hearing the voices of rural Virginians before this? Not based on the recent infrequency or absence of open town hall meetings.

Cline is a desperate liar

What else can you say after he posts this on his campaign Facebook page?

Gov. Spanberger is not trying to take away firearms from anyone who legally possesses them. (Details here.)

If the redistricting amendment is approved, nobody will be denied “representation in Congress.” Every Virginian will be represented by a member of Congress.

What money is Spanberger trying to take away? If Cline is referring to taxes, she hasn’t added any.

And Cline is deliberately confusing federal Congressional representation with state government.

In another post, Cline invokes the Right’s demon-of-choice, George Soros.

Motivated by the fear of losing his seat in Congress due to redistricting, Cline has been frantically crossing Virginia to rally opposition to the amendment.

If only he would put as much time and effort into facing his Sixth District constituents in open town hall meetings as he is putting into saving his job.