Astin—who, in addition to his bona fides as an actor in his own rite, has old-school nepo baby street cred as the son of former SAG-AFTRA president Patty Duke—ended up taking 79.25 percent of the vote, defeating his opponent Chuck Slavin. (Slavin came under critiques during the campaign for resurfaced social media comments, including expressing his hope that he’d “like to see ICE get a lot of these deportations done by summer…they’ll be a lot less burning of our cities by liberals that way.”) Meanwhile, Astin’s running mate, Star Trek: Picard performer Michelle Hurd, defeated Slavin ally Peter Antico with 64.77 percent of the vote, securing the job of secretary-treasurer in the process. (Although Deadline does note that turnout dropped quite a bit this year from the elections leading into, and then during, the strikes, with only 17 percent of union members submitting ballots this time around.) Joely Fisher and Ezra Knight were elected Local presidents for the union’s Los Angeles and New York branches, respectively, while Abbott Elementary‘s Lisa Ann Walter was elected First Vice President in L.A. (Dopesick‘s Linda Powell scored the job in New York.)
Because of the unfortunate nature of time, Astin takes on the new gig just as SAG-AFTRA is preparing for yet another round of negotiations with the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers, because there is always another round of contract negotiations looming on the horizon. This one will be the first since the strikes finally ended late in 2023, and will presumably pick right back up with a number of cans that got kicked down the road back then, most notably ongoing questions about streaming residuals and artificial intelligence.
