Ben Savage speaks onstage at the Boy Meets World 25th Anniversary Reunion panel during New York Comic Con 2018 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on October 5, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for New York Comic Con) After months of speculation, actor Ben Savage officially announced a bid for United States Congress today.
The 42-year-old actor, best known for starring in the 1990’s sitcom “Boy Meets World,” is running for California’s 30th District Seat, currently held by Representative Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who is running for United States Senate.
“I am a proud Californian, union member and longtime resident of District 30 who comes from a family of unwavering service to our country and community,” Savage wrote today in an Instagram post to his 1.1 million followers. “I firmly believe in standing up for what is right, ensuring equality and expanding opportunities for all. I’m running for Congress because it’s time to restore faith in government by offering reasonable, innovative and compassionate solutions to our country’s most pressing issues. And it’s time for new and passionate leaders who can help move our country forward. Leaders who want to see the government operating at maximum capacity, unhindered by political divisions and special interests.”
Savage’s website lists a number of priorities, among them: Reforms to police-citizen interactions, solving homelessness, reproductive maternity care, affordable housing, renter’s rights, investing in jobs, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure, public school funding, trust in government, providing more resources for veterans, and establishing living minimum wage.
Having been an actor since he was a child, Savage is fiercely pro-union.
“As a union member since 1987, I am dedicated to protecting unions and their right to organize and to act on behalf of workers,” he said on his website.
Savage also said he supports universal health care, capping drug prices, codifying Roe v. Wade and passing an assault weapons ban. He is opposed to offshore oil drilling. There was no comment about foreign affairs at the time.
Savage filed the committee Ben Savage for Congress with the Federal Elections Commission on January 18 of this year.
Savage is not new to the political arena. While completing a political science degree at Stanford University, Savage was an intern in the office of the late U.S. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. At the time Savage interned, Spector was a Republican. In 2009, Spector changed his party affiliation back to Democratic, which he remained through his retirement in 2012. Spector passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2012. “I truly enjoyed my time in DC,” Savage told the Journal. “It’s a town of passionate and dedicated professionals, and it was thrilling to be working at the center of government. I am grateful for the people I worked with and the time I spent there. I would be honored to return to Washington D.C. – this time as a member of Congress – to work on behalf of the people of the 30th District.”
In 2022, Savage ran unsuccessfully for West Hollywood City Council. The vote was quite fractured, with the winner Lauren Meister taking 16.47% of the final vote. Savage came in seventh place with 6.32% of the vote.
Born in Chicago in 1980, Savage has lived in Southern California since the mid-1980s. At the time, his older brother Fred starred in ABC’s “The Wonder Years” from 1988-1993. Savage himself starred in the ABC’s “Boy Meets World” from 1993-2000, and reprised his character Cory Matthews for the reboot, “Girl Meets World” for three seasons starting in 2014. He is a Reform Jew and has been engaged to Tessa Angermeier since January 2023.
Other candidates currently declared that they are running for California’s 30th Congressional District seat include former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer (D), Asm. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Maebe A. Girl (D-Silver Lake), LAUSD Board Member Nick Melvoin (D), State Senator Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) and West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne (D).
The 30th includes Los Angeles neighborhoods Beachwood Canyon, Beverly Grove, Echo Park, Fairfax, Hancock Park, Hollywood, Larchmont, Los Feliz, Miracle Mile, Park La Brea, Silverlake and Tujunga.
It also includes parts of Burbank, Glendale, a western portion of Pasadena and Savage’s home district of West Hollywood.
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