Why would Meghan want to be a politician?

The Duchess of Sussex's name was raised as a possible replacement for Senator Dianne Feinstein. Seriously?

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Meghan Markle in Belfast, Northern Ireland, ahead of her wedding in 2018 (Photo: Mark Cuthbert)

NOTE: This is a shorter post as I’m doing another one for the weekend.

I laughed when I saw the first headline: “Meghan Markle 'in running for Dianne Feinstein's Senator seat after icon dies aged 90 as Duchess considers bid for office.’” I admired Senator Feinstein and her long career, and had just finished reading several fine obituaries, including the superb one by Robert McFadden in the New York Times.

In addition, I’d been keeping up with the politics surrounding who would replace her in the U.S. Senate. The thought that Governor Gavin Newsom of California would skip over a very, very long list of eminently qualified black women to chose a political neophyte struck me as completely unrealistic. “I’ve read a lot of articles from serious political reporters on who might temporarily replace the late senator and the Duchess of Sussex was on none of those lists. None,” I tweeted on Saturday.

As more and more articles touted Meghan as a possible replacement — the New York Post weighed in with “Senator Meghan Markle? Speculation mounts Duchess of Sussex will try to replace Feinstein” — I started to weigh the pros and cons of Meghan dipping her toes into the cutthroat world of American politics.

There has long been speculation that she has political ambitions, and that her interests align with the Democratic Party, which currently dominate politics in her home state of California. She voted in the 2022 midterm elections, breaking with the long-standing tradition that royals don’t vote because they want to be seen as apolitical. That year, she and Prince Harry signed an open letter aimed at pushing world leaders to deal with vaccine inequality. In 2021, she cold-called federal politicians as “an engaged citizen” to ask them to include paid family leave in a budget package (the effort failed).

But would she want to enter politics?

Meghan is famous and well-spoken and lives in a state where two famous actors — Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger — became popular governors (albeit as Republicans). Every speech or campaign stop would generate free publicity around the world. Her old Instagram accounts (The Tig and SussexRoyal) prove that she can harness social media in a way many politicians would envy.

Yet, there’s still a mountain of concerns that Meghan would have overcome if she ever decided on a political career.

For one, a life in politics comes with financial disclosure laws. We’d learn a lot about her wealth as well as that of Prince Harry, perhaps even a glimpse into royal finances. The public could even learn about the extent of their commercial arrangements, including their deals with Netflix and Spotify. And though those financial disclosure forms, we’d get an idea of how much it takes to maintain their California lifestyle.

Oh, and being a politician means she’d likely have to forsake her commercial ventures. And while that new role comes with a certain amount of prestige, the salaries aren’t great — U.S. senators make US$174,000 a year.

Money dominates American politics. The race for the open Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2022 cost a whopping US$375 million (it was won by Democrat John Fetterman). The cost of running a campaign is so high that Meghan would have to spend much of her time raising cash by calling donors and attending a never-ending stream of fundraisers, where she’d be expected to articulate her goals and beliefs, again and again and again.