'Parks and Rec' Co-Creator Tells Us Who Would Be Leslie Knope's Presidential Pick In 2020
What Would Leslie Knope Do?
Michael Schur, the co-creator of NBC's "Parks and Recreation," has offered up who he thinks the show's main character, Leslie Knope, would have voted for in next year's presidential race, and it's not Knope's obsession, former Vice President Joe Biden.
The topic came up during Buzzfeed's interview with Schur in October.
Fans of the show know that Leslie Knope had all kinds of feels for Biden. She was in love with his looks as well as his "man of the people" vibe.
Schur Walking a Thin Line
“I think her love of Joe Biden came from two things: Number one, she was, like, rapaciously, sexually attracted to him. And number two, he had this really kind of plainspoken ... 'man of the people' quality."
"And, you know, I can't speak to his physical attractiveness now all these years later, 10 years after the pilot came out," Schur said.
Still Too Many Candidates
Given that we're wading chest-deep into the 2020 presidential election, Schur realizes the Democratic field is pretty congested right now, so he tried to keep things vague.
“There's a lot of candidates that she would like for a lot of different reasons," he said.
“I don’t know what Leslie would think about him now, but, you know, I think she would still admire a lot of his sort of roll-up-your-shirtsleeves, fight-for-people kind of attitude,” Schur says of Biden.
Warren Has a Plan
Schur thinks these days, Knope would sidestep Joe Biden and instead vote for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“But I also think that Elizabeth Warren would be setting Leslie Knope’s hair on fire right now.
Elizabeth Warren not only, I think, aligns with a lot of what Leslie believed in about the ability of the government when it’s functioning well to affect people’s lives for the better, but her whole thing is ‘I’m not just orating here, I’ve got a plan.' ”
Unclear If Knope Would Still Like Klobuchar
Comedian Amy Poehler, who played Knope, spoke on the subject in March, long before Biden jumped in and announced his candidacy for president.
At that time, Poehler thought Knope would have preferred Sen. Amy Klobuchar, citing that candidate's Midwestern roots.
“Who’s the candidate that’s closest, like the Midwest candidate? Maybe Amy Klobuchar,” Poehler said.
And if not Klobuchar, then maybe Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
“She might like that underdog status of him,” Poehler said then.
Biden Could Do In a Pinch
Though he thinks Warren might be Knope's final choice, Schur didn't speak too negatively about the former vice president.
“I don’t know what Leslie would think about him now, but, you know, I think she would still admire a lot of his sort of roll-up-your-shirtsleeves, fight-for-people kind of attitude."
