Veteran actor Ken Howard had overwhelmingly defeated a challenge by former NYPD Blue star Esai Morales to win another term as president of SAG-AFTRA. Morales is part of a group of members called Membership First that strongly opposed the merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists last year. Howard, elected president of SAG in 2009, had been a staunch advocate of the merger.