Las Vegas entertainer Clint Holmes has been added to the glitterati lineup for Tuesday’s political fundraiser featuring President Barack Obama.
Holmes is joining Caesars Palace headliner Bette Midler, Harrah’s headliner Rita Rudner, and singer Sheryl Crow. Holmes, who has been headlining in Las Vegas for most of the past decade, is singing the National Anthem at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
It will be the third president he has performed for and the third time he’s sung for Obama.
The president is making his first visit to Las Vegas since being elected. He’s here to boost the re-election effort of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and repay the swing state for turning Democratic.
Holmes was the first African-American in the U.S. Army Chorus, which sang at all the official functions during his two years with the group. That was during the early years of the Nixon administration.
He also sang for President George H.W. Bush during a TV special at the White House.
He sang for Obama twice during his presidential campaign stops at Cashman Field and Henderson.
During a personal meeting with Obama at the rally in Henderson, Holmes’ wife, Kelly Clinton, reminded her husband to tell Obama one of their favorite family show business stories.
Holmes recounted the night he was headlining at the Suncoast late last year. He told the crowd his family history.
“My mother is a white British opera singer, my father was a black jazz singer, which makes me,” pausing, “Barack Obama.”
From the audience a woman’s voice was heard saying “I wish.”
It was his 93-year-old mother, Audrey.
Obama, said Holmes, was “the only candidate I really got involved with, believed in and campaigned for.”
