page_title: Political life of Frank Sinatra
section_title: Political activities, 1970–94
hierarchical_section_title: Political life of Frank Sinatra / Political activities, 1970–94
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Richard Nixon and Frank Sinatra shaking hands at a "celebrity reception" hosted by Nixon in California (see video of the event on YouTube, via the Richard Nixon Presidential Library). Once an ardent Democrat, Sinatra's endorsement of Nixon in that year's presidential election marked a major turning point in the entertainer's political life.
context_page_description: Throughout his life, Frank Sinatra, the musician and actor, was involved in many different political activities in the United States. He also held positive views toward African Americans at a time when much of the United States still had segregation.
context_section_description: Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the early 1970s when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party as the Democratic Party under George McGovern took a sharp turn to the left that was in conflict with his more traditional values. The first sign of Sinatra's break from the Democratic Party came in 1970 when he endorsed Ronald Reagan for a second term as Governor of California; Sinatra, however, remained a registered Democrat and encouraged Reagan to become more moderate. In July 1972, after a lifetime of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, Sinatra announced he could not support the left-ward turn of the party and its candidate, George McGovern, and would therefore support Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon for re-election in the 1972 presidential election. His switch to the Republican Party was now official; he even told his daughter, Tina, who had actively campaigned for McGovern, "the older you get, the more conservative you get." Sinatra said he agreed with the Republican Party on most positions. During Nixon's presidency, Sinatra visited the White House on several occasions.
  From the late 1960s onward, Sinatra was outspoken about various conflicts in the Middle East. On the eve of the Six-Day War in 1967 he reportedly sent a wire to President Lyndon Johnson "urging him to condemn the 'outrageous' actions of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser". He gave a concert at the Great Pyramids in 1979 to raise money to support the campaign of President Anwar Sadat, whom he considered a "great man who's laying the cornerstone of peace for all the Arab nations". In 1982, during the Israeli–Lebanon conflict, Sinatra expressed hope that Yasser Arafat would be caught and executed.
  Sinatra helped establish two intercultural centers in Israel, the Frank Sinatra Brotherhood and Friendship Center for Arab and Israeli Children in Nazareth, and the Frank Sinatra International Student Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus campus. The latter center was bombed on July 31, 2002, by Hamas, killing 9 and injuring nearly 100.
  In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign. He sponsored the initial fundraising campaign in the northeast, raising over $250,000 in Boston. Sinatra referred to Reagan as "the proper man to be the President of the United States ... it's so screwed up now, we need someone to straighten it out." Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White House since the early 1960s. Sinatra arranged Reagan's Presidential gala, as he had done for Kennedy 20 years previously. In 1984, Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, bringing with him President Reagan, who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 presidential election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part of the Republican National Committee's "Victory '84 Get-Out-The-Vote" (GOTV) drive.
caption: Sinatra shaking hands with Nixon, August 1972
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