# Political life of Frank Sinatra
The political life of [Frank Sinatra](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-sinatra) (1915–1998) ran from New Deal Democratic campaigning in the 1940s, through anti-Communist scrutiny that damaged his career, to support for [John F. Kennedy](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-f-kennedy) in 1960 and, after a break with the Democrats, to [Ronald Reagan](https://www.edgepedia.org/ronald-reagan) and the Republican Party in the 1970s and 1980s.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Early allegiance | A major fundraiser for Democratic candidates from Franklin Roosevelt onward; his mother Dolly was involved with politics in Hoboken, New Jersey[1](https://www.history.com/articles/celebrities-presidential-elections-endorsements) • [2](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/hope-for-america/the-embrace-of-arts-and-politics.html) |
| Tolerance message | In May 1945 he made the 10-minute film *The House I Live In*, preaching racial and religious tolerance; its screenwriter was Albert Maltz, one of the Hollywood Ten[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1999/03/07/aka-frank-sinatra/3f24cd84-20be-4a49-9e98-882f61699b75/) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html) |
| Red Scare toll | In the eight years after *The House I Live In*, Sinatra was named as a communist 12 times in the cumulative index to HUAC publications; he was never called before the committee[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1999/03/07/aka-frank-sinatra/3f24cd84-20be-4a49-9e98-882f61699b75/) |
| FBI file | Released in 1998; about a quarter of it dealt with his support of liberal causes, and it recorded that he had offered to inform on left-wing friends[5](https://daily.jstor.org/frank-sinatra-100/) • [4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html) |
| Kennedy years | Mobilized entertainers for JFK in 1960, including a Madison Square Garden fundraiser and a campaign version of "High Hopes"; Kennedy cut off ties in 1962 over reputed mob connections[6](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2024/10/30/beyonce-and-harris-heston-and-reagan-sinatra-and-jfk-the-stars-who-support-us-presidential-candidates_6731064_117.html) • [7](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-friend-of-presidents-16-05-1998/) |
| Republican turn | Joined Reagan's 1970 California reelection campaign while remaining a registered Democrat; supported Nixon in 1972 and chaired Reagan's 1980 inaugural committee[2](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/hope-for-america/the-embrace-of-arts-and-politics.html) • [7](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-friend-of-presidents-16-05-1998/) |
| Recognition | Reagan presented Sinatra the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, in 1985[8](https://www.biography.com/musicians/frank-sinatra) |
## New Deal Democrat
Sinatra's politics began at home. His mother, Dolly, was involved with politics in his hometown of [Hoboken, New Jersey](https://www.edgepedia.org/hoboken-new-jersey), and he followed her into Democratic campaigning[1](https://www.history.com/articles/celebrities-presidential-elections-endorsements). From Franklin Roosevelt's reluctant 1944 run for a fourth term onward, he was one of Hollywood's most reliable Democratic campaigners, and he later campaigned for Truman, Stevenson, Kennedy, and Humphrey[9](https://vault.fbi.gov/Frank%20Sinatra/Frank%20Sinatra%20Part%2015/at_download/file). In 1944 he joined [Humphrey Bogart](https://www.edgepedia.org/humphrey-bogart), Rita Hayworth, and [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles) on Roosevelt's campaign trail, donating money and speaking on radio and at Carnegie Hall[1](https://www.history.com/articles/celebrities-presidential-elections-endorsements).
**Racial and religious tolerance.** In May 1945 Sinatra made a 10-minute film, *The House I Live In*, in which he sang the title song and preached tolerance to a group of boys tormenting a Jewish classmate[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1999/03/07/aka-frank-sinatra/3f24cd84-20be-4a49-9e98-882f61699b75/). The song was written by the leftist Earl Robinson and the film directed by Albert Maltz, later one of the Hollywood Ten, associations the FBI noted[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html). In a 1945 letter to Maltz, Sinatra called film "the greatest, most effective weapon" against bigotry, writing that movies reached more Americans than a thousand speakers could[10](https://time.com/5671126/frank-sinatra-letter/).
## The Red Scare years
Sinatra was one of the founding members of the Committee for the First Amendment, a group that supported the Hollywood Ten, the screenwriters and directors blacklisted after refusing to say whether they were Communist Party members[11](https://www.history.com/articles/frank-sinatra-mob-ties-fbi-file). The FBI file recorded his appearance as an observer of a picket line in front of Warner Brothers studio alongside a committee of screenwriters nearly all known to be Communist Party members, and a scheduled March 1945 photograph with Orest Shevtzov, the United States representative of the Youth Anti-Fascist Committee in Moscow[12](https://vault.fbi.gov/Frank%20Sinatra/Frank%20Sinatra%20Part%2003).
The consequences were concrete. In the eight years following *The House I Live In*, the cumulative index to HUAC publications shows Sinatra was named as a communist 12 times, and his career, like those of other victims of [McCarthyism](https://www.edgepedia.org/mccarthyism), was damaged[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html). He was never hauled before HUAC, but the FBI kept him in its sights for what it considered suspicious activity, including his support of anti-racist initiatives and his defense of people accused of being Communists[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1999/03/07/aka-frank-sinatra/3f24cd84-20be-4a49-9e98-882f61699b75/) • [11](https://www.history.com/articles/frank-sinatra-mob-ties-fbi-file).
**The FBI file.** Sinatra's file, released in 1998, ran to 29 parts; the majority concerned alleged Mafia ties, while about a quarter dealt with his support of causes including refugees, anti-lynching work, and the Hollywood Ten[5](https://daily.jstor.org/frank-sinatra-100/). The file also contained a surprise: fans had long known of his left-wing activity, but the release showed he had offered to be, in the Los Angeles Times's words, "a fink, a squealer, a stoolie," wanting to inform on his left-wing friends to the FBI[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html). The file never got him in trouble, but historians reading it see evidence of a government that perceived the singer as a threat[11](https://www.history.com/articles/frank-sinatra-mob-ties-fbi-file).
**Breaking the blacklist.** Sinatra remained a political progressive and tried to use his Hollywood power against the blacklist. In 1960 he openly hired Maltz to work with him on an adaptation of *The Execution of Private Slovik*, but he was forced to abandon the project under pressure from powerful industry and political forces[4](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html) • [10](https://time.com/5671126/frank-sinatra-letter/).
## The Kennedy alliance and break
In the 1960 presidential campaign Sinatra put his entertainment network at John F. Kennedy's service, including a fundraising event at [Madison Square Garden](https://www.edgepedia.org/madison-square-garden), and recorded a personalized version of "High Hopes" as the campaign's anthem[6](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2024/10/30/beyonce-and-harris-heston-and-reagan-sinatra-and-jfk-the-stars-who-support-us-presidential-candidates_6731064_117.html). After Kennedy's election, Sinatra supervised the inaugural gala in Washington[8](https://www.biography.com/musicians/frank-sinatra).
The relationship soured. Kennedy canceled a weekend visit to Sinatra's house because of the singer's connections to the Chicago mob boss [Sam Giancana](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-giancana), and in 1962 the president cut off ties over Sinatra's reputed mob connections[8](https://www.biography.com/musicians/frank-sinatra) • [7](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-friend-of-presidents-16-05-1998/). Columnist Army Archerd of *Daily Variety* dated the political consequence from that rupture: "from there on in, it was no longer Frank Sinatra, Democrat; it was Frank Sinatra, Republican"[7](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-friend-of-presidents-16-05-1998/).
## The turn to Reagan and the Republicans
In 1970 Sinatra, a major Democratic fundraiser since Roosevelt, astonished Hollywood by joining the reelection campaign of California Governor Ronald Reagan against Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, whom Sinatra disliked intensely; his [Rat Pack](https://www.edgepedia.org/rat-pack) partner [Dean Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/dean-martin) joined Californians for Reagan shortly after[2](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/hope-for-america/the-embrace-of-arts-and-politics.html). Sinatra agreed to be cochairman of the organization, while insisting, "I have been and will continue to be a Democrat," and saying it was his duty as a citizen to put aside partisan considerations for a candidate he thought clearly outstanding[9](https://vault.fbi.gov/Frank%20Sinatra/Frank%20Sinatra%20Part%2015/at_download/file).
By the 1970s he had abandoned his long-held Democratic loyalties, supporting [Richard Nixon](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-nixon) in 1972 and then his close friend Reagan[8](https://www.biography.com/musicians/frank-sinatra). At the 1980 [Republican National Convention](https://www.edgepedia.org/republican-national-convention) he explained the shift in his own words: "The liberal approach didn't work as well as it should have, and I think maybe a lot of us have moved away from it"[13](https://www.thedailybeast.com/sinatra-from-kennedy-man-to-reaganite/). He endorsed Reagan for president in 1980, chaired the Reagan inaugural committee, and became a White House intimate once again[7](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-friend-of-presidents-16-05-1998/). In 1985 Reagan presented him with the [Presidential Medal of Freedom](https://www.edgepedia.org/presidential-medal-of-freedom)[8](https://www.biography.com/musicians/frank-sinatra).
## Assessment
The arc of Sinatra's politics tracks the arc of his generation's Hollywood liberalism. A scholar of the Popular Front era argues that Sinatra's association with that broad 1940s left-liberal coalition shows its influence was wider, and its repression more comprehensive, than generally recognized[14](https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.66.3.311.21022). The historian who documented his FBI file reads the files as evidence of a government that saw a charismatic singer's progressive causes as a threat[11](https://www.history.com/articles/frank-sinatra-mob-ties-fbi-file), and one reading of his transformation is symbolic: the shift in theme song from *The House I Live In*, a celebration of multicultural America, to "My Way," a manifesto of individualism[5](https://daily.jstor.org/frank-sinatra-100/). His reach outlived him in unexpected forms; after the fall of the Soviet bloc, a Kremlin spokesman described the "Frank Sinatra Doctrine" in [Eastern Europe](https://www.edgepedia.org/eastern-europe), meaning Moscow would let the Soviet republics do things "their way"[13](https://www.thedailybeast.com/sinatra-from-kennedy-man-to-reaganite/).
## References
1. [From Sinatra to Streisand: 100 Years of Celebrity Political Endorsements, HISTORY](https://www.history.com/articles/celebrities-presidential-elections-endorsements)
2. [The Embrace of Arts and Politics, Hope for America exhibition, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/hope-for-america/the-embrace-of-arts-and-politics.html)
3. [AKA Frank Sinatra, The Washington Post (1999)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/1999/03/07/aka-frank-sinatra/3f24cd84-20be-4a49-9e98-882f61699b75/)
4. [His Way, Los Angeles Times (2000)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-08-bk-33535-story.html)
5. [Frank Sinatra's Radical Past, JSTOR Daily](https://daily.jstor.org/frank-sinatra-100/)
6. [Beyoncé and Harris, Heston and Reagan, Sinatra and JFK, Le Monde English (2024)](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2024/10/30/beyonce-and-harris-heston-and-reagan-sinatra-and-jfk-the-stars-who-support-us-presidential-candidates_6731064_117.html)
7. [A Friend of Presidents, CBS News (1998)](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-friend-of-presidents-16-05-1998/)
8. [Frank Sinatra: Death, Songs & Life, Biography.com](https://www.biography.com/musicians/frank-sinatra)
9. [Frank Sinatra FBI File, Part 15 of 29, FBI Vault](https://vault.fbi.gov/Frank%20Sinatra/Frank%20Sinatra%20Part%2015/at_download/file)
10. [Read Frank Sinatra's 1945 Letter, TIME (2019)](https://time.com/5671126/frank-sinatra-letter/)
11. [Frank Sinatra's Mob Ties and Other Secrets from His FBI File, HISTORY](https://www.history.com/articles/frank-sinatra-mob-ties-fbi-file)
12. [Frank Sinatra FBI File, Part 03 of 29, FBI Vault](https://vault.fbi.gov/Frank%20Sinatra/Frank%20Sinatra%20Part%2003)
13. [Sinatra, From Kennedy Man to Reaganite, The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/sinatra-from-kennedy-man-to-reaganite/)
14. [Frank Sinatra: The Popular Front and an American Icon, Science & Society (2002)](https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.66.3.311.21022)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Political systems and ideas › Political ideologies › Ideology theory and comparison › History and spread of ideologies › Cold War ideological competition*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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