BANGOR, Maine — The actor best known for his role in helping save Middle Earth visited the University of Maine and downtown Bangor Tuesday afternoon hoping to convince people to get out to elect Hillary Clinton as president.
Sean Astin, who portrayed Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the title role in the football classic “Rudy” and Mikey Walsh in “The Goonies,” has been touring the United States in recent months, stumping for Clinton in key battleground areas including Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska and New York.
He started his one-day tour of Maine Tuesday at UMaine, where he toured the campus and encouraged students to fill out voter registration cards and to make sure to vote.
Astin later headed to downtown Bangor where about 50 people crowded into The Briar Patch, a book and toy store, to hear him speak, take selfies and get memorabilia signed.
“You’re in the vanguard, people, you need to register to vote,” he said.
Astin has been a vocal supporter of Clinton for years. He also stumped heavily for her during her 2008 presidential bid — hitting 15 states in four months.
He said he supports Clinton because he feels she best represents working-class people and the poor, and she has a well vetted policy agenda that will move the country in the right direction.
“You don’t have to guess at what she’s going to do when she takes office,” he said.
He borrowed from a Samwise Gamgee speech in “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” to describe his thoughts on the approaching election.
“There is some good left in this world, and it’s worth fighting for,” he said.
After signing autographs and speaking to the crowd downtown, Astin went to a phone bank at the Maine Democratic Party Field Office in Bangor to spend three hours calling Mainers in support of Clinton.
Astin has been part of Clinton’s push to get 3 million Americans to register and commit to vote in the November election.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.