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 of Monterrey borders Carmel to the north. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 3,722, down from 4,081 at the 2000 census. Carmel-by-the-Sea is in an area permeated by Native American, Spanish, Mexican and American history. Most scholars believe that the Esselen-speaking people were the first Native Americans to inhabit the area of Carmel, but the Ohlone people pushed them south into the mountains of Big Sur around the 6th century. The first Europeans to see this land were Spanish mariners led by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542, who sailed up the California coast without