Chris Evans Is Bringing Dozens of High Schoolers to the White House to Talk Politics with Biden Officials
Evans' event with first-time voters, which will be live-streamed by the White House on Tuesday morning, is part of his broader campaign to engage Americans with the democratic process
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Chris Evans speaks at the 2022 MTV Movie and TV AwardsChris Evans is heading to Washington, D.C., to engage first-time voters ahead of the 2024 election.
On Tuesday morning, Evans and actor Mark Kassen — who co-founded the bipartisan civic engagement website A Starting Point in 2020 — are bringing dozens of high school seniors to the White House for a conversation on youth engagement in U.S. politics, focusing specifically on the primary issues affecting young people today, like economic opportunity, job creation and climate action.
A number of senior White House officials will also be on-hand to answer questions, including press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, and former Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, who heads the White House Office of Public Engagement.
The event, which will be live-streamed by the White House at 10 a.m. ET, is part of A Starting Point's broader campaign to encourage civil discussion around key political issues and engage people with the democratic process.
Evans, PEOPLE's 2022 Sexiest Man Alive, is no stranger to discussing politics. When he was looking for a new initiative to launch ahead of the last presidential election, he wanted something that could have a real impact.
"We live in a country of 300 million-plus people, I think roughly only 60 percent of the people voted [in the last election]," he told PEOPLE in 2020. "In my opinion, you're going to have a hard time creating a government that accurately reflects who we are as a nation with those types of numbers."
Related: Chris Evans, PEOPLE's 2022 Sexiest Man Alive, Shares His 'Sexy' Midterms Message
Coming from a political family and feeling determined to help others find their voice, Evans had the idea to tackle voter engagement. So he — along with his Before We Go co-star Kassen and tech entrepreneur Joe Kiani — started a website that could expose Americans to a variety of political viewpoints and get them excited to cast an informed vote at the ballot box.
"There's a lot of things you can do as an actor with your name," the Avengers star said. "I could be making booze — I don't discourage anyone from doing that, I love booze — but there's no denying that I played a certain character [as Captain America], and it just so happens to align with part of my nature in terms of being someone who is politically involved and who cares about the wellbeing of people in this country."
The White House's joint event with Evans and Kassen comes after a number of other celebrity appearances organized by the Biden administration — each with its own unique, bipartisan message.
Last year, the cast of Ted Lasso joined a White House press briefing to speak on the importance of addressing mental health; after the Robb Elementary School shooting in 2022, Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey delivered an impassioned speech calling for across-the-aisle solutions to gun violence; and after the COVID-19 vaccine was released, Gen Z sensation Olivia Rodrigo and Level Up singer Ciara each had their moment to encourage young people to get vaccinated.
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