With a new age of social media, people spending over an hour a day on average doom-scrolling down their feeds, trying to satisfy their never-ending hunger for content, when election season rolls around, politicians will try to capitalize on that. Although some have made their own social media pages platforming themselves, everyone from the likes of presidential candidates to local mayoral candidates are scrambling to grab the endorsement of another popular figure.
Celebrities, influencers, even other politicians all endorse political candidates during this time of year, with presidential candidates being the main focus. Both sides of the aisle are trying to get the attention of voters, and the best they can do is make themselves more credible via multiple endorsement campaigns. Massive music moguls like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and Cardi B have all endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, while celebrities like Bryce Hall, Elon Musk and Amber Rose have endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Backing this argument is the idea that celebrity endorsements should be one of the keys to the White House. The Democratic National Convention (DNC) ended up being more of a concert more than anything else, with artists like Lil Jon, Patti LaBelle, Maren Morris, Stevie Wonder, P!NK and John Legend all performing songs during the 3-day convention. Even the Republican National Convention (RNC) featured some artists like Kid Rock, giving a speech dedicating his vote to Trump. It can seem very performative, although the intention of these celebrities is good in most cases. It’s not just popular music artists; the DNC even hosted a reunion for the popular show “Scandal” with both Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn hosting the last night of the convention, endorsing Kamala Harris and giving speeches about how, with this election, it is more important than ever to vote, saying “I am here as a mother, a daughter, a proud union member, the granddaughter of immigrants and a Black woman descended from enslaved people. I am here tonight because I am an American and I am a voter.”
However, those endorsements are not always from a pure place. Popular influencer Tana Mongeau took to her “Canceled” podcast to talk about her being “offered a lot of money to endorse a political party” and given an alleged list of influencers who have also taken the bribe to endorse this political party. Mongeau is one of many to come out and talk about the endorsement, with other influencers like Benji Krol coming out saying, “I’m not even American, and I don’t live in America,” but he received an offer to endorse one of the political candidates. It’s dystopian to think that non-Americans can promote and endorse American political candidates, and we believe their word is above our own personal opinions.
It’s insane to think that a simple celebrity announcing who they will vote for can drive voter registration up, but it does. Taylor Swift announced that she would be voting for Harris after the presidential debate. Before this official endorsement, Swift fans, aptly named Swifties, were playing both sides. Campaigns like Swifties for Trump and Swifties for Harris are raising money for their respective candidates, both raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. This all came to a head when Trump’s social media account on Truth Social started posting AI Generated content depicting Swift endorsing Trump, which was denounced by Swift in her Instagram post encouraging her fans to get registered and get out to vote, saying “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice, your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.” This idea is not so black and white however, as there is some psychological backing to this.
This theory called authority principle fuels our day-to-day decisions. We believe that because celebrities and influencers have lived more than us, they have a better opinion than we could form. Vote.org saw a 400% increase in activity after the presidential debate, and a lot of that traffic can be attributed to Swift’s endorsement of and encouragement to go to check your registration or register to vote for the first time. Students are not oblivious to the influence either. Future voter and UNLV student Andrew Calinog said that “Many people idolize celebrities and absolutely love them, just hearing when a celebrity likes a certain drink or snack it would go out of stock … so when a celebrity likes a politician, their fans would too.” If you see your favorite artist recommending someone else, you’re likely to check out that other artist. If you see your favorite artist recommending a great restaurant, that restaurant is going to see more foot traffic in a day than it would in a normal week. If you see your favorite artist endorsing a political candidate that you can vote for, you should go do research before jumping to final conclusions.
