Yeardley Smith Donates $250,000 to Human Rights Campaign PAC Ahead of Midterms

By Ted Johnson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – WASHINGTON — Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson on “The Simpsons,” is donating $250,000 to the Human Rights Campaign’s SuperPAC to support its organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts in advance of the midterms.

Smith also is matching donations up to $50,000 from others donating to HRC’s Equality Votes Super PAC.

Chad Griffin, the president of HRC, said that the contribution “is just going to enable us to reach that many more voters in the midterms.” He called Smith a “critical partner in the battle for full equality in this country.”

Smith has donated $1.05 million to HRC and also contributed $2 million to groups that sought marriage equality, including the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Griffin led that group, which sought to overturn California’s ban on same sex marriage and brought the case to the Supreme Court.

Other entertainment figures who have donated to the Super PAC include Tyler Oakley, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kevin Huvane, and Bryan Lourd.

Griffin said that HRC is replicating efforts it used in 2016 to defeat North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who lost to Democrat Roy Cooper.

HRC also is holding an art auction on Monday in New York to raise money for its midterm campaigning, with works from artists such as Jasper Johns, Cindy Sherman, and Alec Soth.