Posted on Wed, Apr. 30, 2008

Actor Vin Diesel has stopped chasing bad guys long enough to endorse the president of the Dominican Republic for re-election.

Diesel appears in a Dominican campaign commercial urging a vote for his friend, President Leonel Fernández. The endorsement first aired Wednesday on local TV stations and is paired with movie clips that show Diesel running, driving and surviving a bomb explosion.

The 40-year-old actor says he visits the Dominican Republic about once a year and owns a home on the country's eastern coast.

About 5.7 million of the Dominican Republic's 9 million people are registered to vote in the May 16 general elections. Fernández is running against construction magnate Miguel Vargas Maldonado.