Political life of Clint Eastwood Political life of Clint Eastwood American actor and director Clint Eastwood has long shown an interest in politics. He won election as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in April 1986 and in 2001, Governor Gray Davis appointed the Oscar-winner to the California State Park and Recreation Commission. Eastwood endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election and delivered a prime time address at the 2012 Republican National Convention, where he delivered a speech addressed to an empty chair representing Barack Obama. During a screening of his 1992 film "Unforgiven" at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2017, as
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California the Sanctuary of the San Carlos Church, next to Crespí, who had passed the previous year. Serra was buried with full military honors. Carmel Mission has importance beyond the history of Serra, who is sometimes called the "Father of California". It also contains the state's first library. A welder, John Martin, acquired lands surrounding the Carmel mission in 1833, which he named Mission Ranch. Carmel became part of the United States in 1848, when Mexico ceded California as a result of the Mexican–American War. Known as "Rancho Las Manzanitas", the area that was to become Carmel-by-the-Sea was purchased by French