A new candidate for president has made a late entrance into the race in northeast Ohio with a few tricks to win more votes … or treats.
Drivers on Route 18 in Medina have been treated to a billboard since October which reads, “VOTE GEORGE FOR PRESIDENT."
The billboard, courtesy of real estate agent Jill Renee Hill, features a larger-than-life photo of George, her dog.
“He’s two years old and just such a loving beagle,” Hill said. “His name is George Clooney. Because I've always had this dream of having dinner with George Clooney. So, I say ‘now I dine with George Clooney every night. I sleep with George Clooney’. So, he's definitely taken on his namesake. He's a schmoozer.”
Hill said as a real estate agent, she’s started to use her two dogs as her brand and has had multiple billboards with her pets faces on them. But for the election, Hill wanted to try something a little different.
“Everyone gets into heated discussions about the blue side, the red side and everything in between,” Hill said. “So why not do something that makes people smile? Because who doesn’t smile at a beagle right there? If you don’t smile at a beagle, there’s something wrong with you.”
In an interview Thursday with Ideastream Public Media, Hill said she’s gotten a lot of amazing responses from the billboard with people laughing and joking about it.
“Unfortunately, today he [George] decided to run away with another beagle that I’m watching,” Hill said. “So, I posted it because I was afraid that they would get too far away. And someone wrote that ‘George was taking running for president seriously’. It's things like that, right?”
Hill said after sniffing around for votes and lunch, George and his fellow hound were found safe and sound.