Olivia Wilde Is Hitting the Campaign Trail for Her Mom
*By Max Godnick*
Actress Olivia Wilde is hitting the campaign trail ー but she's not running for office or portraying a politician in a new movie.
Instead, she's playing the real-life role of devoted daughter. The star's mother, Leslie Cockburn, is the Democratic nominee for Congress in Virginia's fifth district. A veteran journalist who spent her career working at "60 Minutes," ABC News, and "PBS FRONTLINE," among other prominent shows, Cockburn will face Republican distillery owner Denver Riggleman in November's midterm elections.
"The fifth district is kind of this intense microcosm," Wilde said in an interview with Cheddar's Baker Machado.
Larger in size than New Jersey, Virginia's fifth includes both rural areas and the city of Charlottesville. Wilde observed that the region's constituents "have all different needs" that represent a variety of issues that "the nation is facing as a whole."
"Obviously, Charlottesville is a hotbed of really intense emotion and controversy," she said.
Wilde is set to join the campaign for the first time on Oct. 14, when she and long-time fiancé, fellow actor Jason Sudeikis, will host a rally at the University of Virginia.
She said that up until now, her mother hasn't needed a celebrity daughter with her on the stump.
"She has been really focusing on just the issues of the fifth district," Wilde said.
But the star said she is excited to get out the vote with under 35 days to go before election day.
"There's a bunch of people who will be voting for the first time in this midterm election, and I think it's incredible what a difference they could make," Wilde said.
The actress is not a total stranger to politics. Sudeikis played Mitt Romney on "Saturday Night Live" during the now-Senate candidate's 2008 and 2012 White House runs. It might not be long before the comedian returns to the NBC sketch show to reprise the role ー former Trump adviser Steve Bannon [recently predicted](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/409071-bannon-predicts-three-way-race-in-2020) that the president will face a centrist challenge from Romney or Michael Bloomberg in 2020.
Wilde said she's ready for her partner to "put on the old wig" ー with one caveat.
"I think he would be happy to be Mitt again for a day," she said. "As long as it doesn't mean Mitt as president."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/olivia-wilde-is-ready-to-join-her-moms-congressional-campaign).
A new report from ProPublica and the Washington Post found that Facebook Groups played a major role in the spread of misinformation linked to the January 6 insurrection with more than 650,000 posts claiming that Joe Biden's election victory was illegitimate.
Millions of Americans with young children have relied on the child tax credit since the federal government began issuing checks in July 2021. The last round of payments was sent out just before the Christmas holiday — at the same time as the omicron variant surged. Leah Hamilton, associate professor of social work at Appalachian State University, joined Cheddar to discuss what the end to the tax credit means as the U.S. sees the end of many relief programs and its highest number of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic. "It'll become harder for families to meet their basic needs, increasing national childhood poverty rates and the proportion of families who have difficulty putting food on the table, maintaining stable housing, and paying their bills," Hamilton said. She also pointed to research that the credit as a long-term investment in children offsets claims that it contributes to macroeconomic impacts like inflation.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the week-end, just days after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The call comes as Washington prepares to meet with Moscow on January 10, as tensions mount over Russia's military build up near its border with Ukraine. Cheddar News speaks with Mustafa Tameez, a former advisor to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about the issue.
Several Silicon Valley insiders are being accused of contorting a 1990s-era tax break to avoid taxes on millions of dollars of investment profits. The tax break is known as the qualified small business stock exemption, and it allows early investors in certain companies to avoid half of the taxes on up to $10 million in capital gains. A piece recently published in the New York Times says venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz replicated the tax exemption by giving shares of companies to friends and family, who would otherwise face a 23.8% capital gains bill. The CEO of Roblox is also accused of replicating the tax break for his family members at least 12 times. Although the loophole known as 'stacking' is considered to be legal, the Times piece implies that the exemption has been manipulated for the ultra-wealthy to become more wealthy. Greycroft co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Alan Patricof joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chris Sommerfeldt, City Hall reporter for the New York Daily News, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses both the wins and losses of Bill de Blasio's eight years as New York City Mayor.
The push to regulate the gig worker economy is gaining steam as the share of workers who participate in freelancing through businesses like Uber and Lyft have also exponentially grown during the pandemic. Employment attorney Mark Kluger, founding partner at Kluger Healey, LLC, joined Cheddar to break down how the battle to reclassify gig workers will continue in the new year, and why the issue continues to generate conflict. "More and more workers are using gig work as their primary source of income and as a result of that they are not like employees in the sense that they don't have benefits like health insurance," Kluger noted.
2021 saw markets continue to be impacted by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic -most recently in the form of the Omicron variant- in addition to the global supply chain shortage, and increased inflation. But it wasn't all bad news, as crypto soared throughout the year, and meme stocks continued to have a moment. With the year coming to a close, investors are keeping an eye out to see if they should expect more of the same in the new year. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX tells us what market trends to be on the watch for in 2022.
