Why celebrity deals don’t work out as A-Listers fail to win it for Harris

The combined support of celebrities like George Clooney, Taylor Swift, Beyonce and others would not help Kamala Harris get the presidency in Tuesday’s election.

A host of A-listers from Hollywood and the music world all threw their weight behind the Democrat during a bitterly fought campaign, hoping that their millions of supporters and fans would will move the needle.

But even Swift’s permission doesn’t seem to make a difference. Also no support from Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, or Ariana Grande. Harrison Ford warned of the threat of useless democracy.

Lebron James, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo, Eminem, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California all spoke about Harris. Julia Roberts and Robert De Niro similarly seemed to have little power with the public.

Charli xcx wrote “Kamala IS Brat” in July and Harris’ campaign even adopted the color scheme of her album on social media.

But in the end, none of them were enough to defeat the new and different coalition of voters supporting Donald Trump. The question, as Democrats search for answers about what went wrong, is why?

Hollywood Reporter writer Seth Abramovitch said Caretaker that the audience of these stars, except for Swift, “was ready to vote for Kamala.”

Swift can appeal to both sides of the aisle, but not to the voters who switched votes for Trump this time, namely Latinos and Black men.

Arizona State University professor Margaretha Bentley told the paper that “celebrity endorsements can increase public engagement and voter registration” but “have not had a direct impact on how people vote.” how do they make their decisions.”

“Voters can do more research after a celebrity endorses, but they will vote based on their values ​​and not necessarily the celebrity’s quality,” he added.

The vote.gov site had 405,999 visitors the day after Swift’s approval where she shared the URL.

Ashley Spillane wrote the Harvard study Celebrities Who Strengthen Our Democratic Culturewhich found that concessions may increase “nonpartisan public cooperation” but it is unclear whether they will lead to a better outcome for the approved candidate.

Bentley said the investigation was unable to answer the question of whether there was a point to seeking consent.

A 2008 poll found that Winfrey’s endorsement of President Barack Obama increased nearly a million votes for her. But it was then.

YouGov found in a poll after Swift’s endorsement that only eight per cent of voters said they were “somewhat” or “more likely” to support Harris while 20 per cent said they were unlikely to. support.

New York University professor Laurence Maslon said Caretaker that “conventions have done more for the celebrity than for the person being approved.”

But Maslon added that “having a world-renowned black artist not promote Harris would probably have been a big mistake, just in terms of context.”

He adds that the only time celebrity endorsements make any difference is when the candidate himself is a celebrity, pointing to 1940s movie star George Murphy who became a California senator. After that, Schwarzenegger and the late President Ronald Reagan both became governors of the Golden State, both Republicans.

Meanwhile, Trump skipped state-level politics altogether and ran directly for the presidency as a Republican after identifying as a Democrat.

Democrats get celebrity endorsements easily, but if you’re a celebrity and want to run for office, the Republicans might be the party for you.