Winfrey watchers say they aren’t surprised to see her ramping up her political involvement. | REUTERS Oprah's new 'favorite thing': Politics

Oprah Winfrey is stepping back into politics - and, as with everything she does, it’s drawing notice.

The talk show queen has largely stayed out of the fray since her high-profile endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primary. But five years later, Winfrey’s begun wading back in — with a Senate endorsement, controversial comments on the Travyon Martin case, efforts to promote Obamacare and gun control, and her first movie role in more than decade, starring in her most political film to date.


During an interview about her new movie, “The Butler,” Winfrey was back in the news Friday when she revealed to “Entertainment Tonight” that she had been a victim of discrimination when a store clerk in Zurich had refused to show her a $38,000 handbag because the saleswoman didn’t think Winfrey could afford it. The Swiss government and the boutique apologized, trying to tamp down what had a become a worldwide story.

( PHOTOS: 2013 Medal of Freedom honorees)

On Thursday, the White House announced that in recognition of Winfrey’s contribution to American culture she will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, later this year from the man she helped into the Oval Office.

Long-time Winfrey watchers say they aren’t surprised to see her ramping up her political involvement.

“Oprah has a golden trumpet,” says author Kitty Kelley, who wrote an unauthorized best-selling biography of Winfrey. “And no one knows how to blow it better than she does.”

( VIDEO: Oprah on significance of movie 'The Butler')

Winfrey did just that when she jumped full force into the New Jersey Senate contest, hosting a fundraiser for Newark Mayor Cory Booker last week. At the event, Winfrey explained to those in attendance why she chose to endorse Booker - who polls show is the runaway favorite to be the state’s next senator - in the four-way Democratic primary to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

“She knows a few things about people who have the ‘it’ factor, and she felt he has it,” Marjorie Perry, a Newark businesswoman who attended the fundraiser, told POLITICO. “She felt that Cory had the light.”

Perry said Winfrey also noted that “she does not normally get involved with individual campaigns, but she [was] clear that he has a vision and purpose for bringing added value to Washington.”

( PHOTOS: Cory Booker’s career)

Neither Winfrey nor the Booker campaign would comment for this story.

Over her long career in the national spotlight, Winfrey, 59, was famous for her powerful, market moving endorsements of books, movies and consumer products, but she has done the same only for a few lucky politicians: Obama, Booker and, at the local level, Michael Tubbs, a then-21-year-old who last year won a seat on the City Council in Stockton, Calif.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Winfrey, a billionaire and one of the richest women in the world, also has donated to Obama’s reelection and 2008 campaigns but otherwise has not contributed to any other candidates for federal office in last two decades. Prior to that, she gave $1,000 to Carol Moseley Braun’s 1992 Senate bid. While she hasn’t backed other individual candidates, Winfrey has given to the Democratic National Committee, as well as state Democratic parties in recent years. She has not yet contributed any candidates for the 2014 cycle, according to filings, but her fundraiser for Booker was expected to raise at least $250,000.

( Also on POLITICO: Oprah hosting fundraiser for Cory Booker)

Winfrey’s political blessing of Obama - she endorsed him on “Larry King Live” in May 2007 and later held fundraisers and made campaign appearances on his behalf in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina - made a real difference then and experts say it can today, too.

“We estimated that her endorsement of Obama amounted to approximately a million additional votes in the 2008 Democratic primary,” said Craig Garthwaite, a Northwestern University professor who studied Oprah’s effect on the election. “Given how tight that election was, it had a really meaningful impact. She has an ability to influence people.”

And Winfrey herself can benefit from catching Washington’s attention once again — she’s got a new movie opening on Friday, Kelley noted.

“I do not think for one moment that Oprah would’ve chosen this moment to publicly endorse Cory Booker, or anyone for that matter, unless she had a movie — ‘The Butler’ — about to be released that needs her supernatural infusion of publicity,” the writer said.

Winfrey plays the wife of a White House butler, based on the career of Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents.

( PHOTOS: Who's who in 'The Butler')

She recently told thegrio.com that she hopes through the movie people will come to recognize “the depth and importance of Obama.” Winfrey said, “To look at all those administrations compared to Obama. I mean Obama will stand alone because of what that represented for the country.”

It was in that interview earlier this month that Winfrey also ignited a controversy and drew criticism when she likened the death of Martin to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, an African-American teenager from Chicago who was slain in Mississippi for reportedly flirting with a white woman. His killers were acquitted at trial and later admitted their guilt.

To have Winfrey expected at the White House later this year for the Medal of Freedom ceremony and speaking out publicly to promote the president’s health care reform and his push to enact tighter gun restrictions stands in contrast to her low profile last year during Obama’s reelection battle. While she endorsed the president for a second term, Winfrey didn’t hit the trail for him in 2012.

“No, I’m not going to be out there,” Winfrey explained on CBS at the time, adding that she was busy working to fix her struggling television network. “I am 100 percent behind our president. I actually love our president and have the utmost respect for him and that office and what it takes to be there.”

Today, Winfrey is among a group of celebrities enlisted by the administration to spread the word about Obamacare. Last month, she sent a representative to a meeting at the White House to discuss ways to assist with the plan’s roll-out. Winfrey also pushed Obama’s agenda during a commencement speech at Harvard in May, speaking passionately in favor of “stronger background checks” for gun buyers and “a clear path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who reside in this country.”

Although her career-defining daily talk show is off the air, Oprah’s political activity still packs a punch, observers say.

“Few individuals bring greater attention and support, particularly from less engaged voters, than Oprah,” Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak told POLITICO. “Her influence has probably waned since her daily, syndicated show ended, but she remains an immensely powerful brand.”

It’s Winfrey’s authenticity and familiarity that makes her word matter more than that of other politically involved stars, according to Democratic consultant Donna Brazile.

“That’s her true appeal to the masses,” Brazile said. “Most people simply feel that they know her.”