carter was a registered republican, who described her political views as libertarian. she was interviewed by bill o'reilly along with pat boone at the 2000 republican national convention. although her "designing women" character julia sugarbaker was known for her liberal political views and subsequent monologues, carter disagreed with many of her character's left-of-center commentaries and made a deal with the producers that for every speech she had to make with which she disagreed, julia would get to sing a song in a future episode. carter once jokingly described herself as "the only republican in show business". in her lifetime, carter was also a strong supporter of the gay community.