Earlier this week, the much-anticipated presidential debate between Kamala Harris, the vice-president, and the former president Donald Trump took place. But one of the most newsworthy events of the night occurred after the sparring concluded, when the pop-megastar Taylor Swift took to Instagram to endorse Harris. “The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth. I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift wrote in her caption, under a photo of her holding a cat. “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”
Swift’s reach was massive and immediate – fellow celebrities including WNBA breakout star Caitlin Clark and Jennifer Aniston liked the post, which amassed millions of likes in minutes. More than 300,000 new visitors went to vote.gov as a direct consequence of Swift’s post, an action she reinforced in her remarks at the VMA awards ceremony the following night: “If you’re over 18 please register to vote for something else that is important – the Presidential election.”
In the current-day social fabric, parasocial relationships rule supreme – a celebrity is not just viewed as an entertainer one may fancy and enjoy, but also an extension of a fan’s moral, social and political values. In a political context, the transitive logic of, I am a good person and I like X as my favorite celebrity, therefore they must be good as well, has a high potential to quickly evolve into, I am a good person and my favorite celebrity’s candidate is X, therefore they must be the right candidate because my favorite celebrity is also good and right.
This has been a boon for the Harris-Walz campaign, which has fought to catch up in an accelerated campaign cycle. Endorsements, celebrity-driven social media trends such as Charli xcx’s “brat summer,” and pithy talking points have served as effective placeholders as the vice-president’s election squad works to fill in the blanks of a campaign being built on the fly and which only published its policy platforms this week.
Swift is the latest to join a wave of celebrities who are using their platforms to assist Harris and Walz. Since the launch of the ticket in July, celebrity support has cascaded in, in the form of donations, social media endorsements and stars actively serving as proxy delegates. Megan Thee Stallion, for instance, launched her own affinity group, Hotties for Harris, and also performed at Harris’s Atlanta rally. “We are really doing the damn thing. I’m proud of us,” the Houston rapper said in a recent Billboard interview. “Now we just got to get out there and go vote.”
The Florida rapper Plies, who is no stranger to internet virality, has transformed his social media presence into a space for advocating for the Harris campaign, defending her against what he has perceived to be misogynist and racist attacks. “To men who look like me,” he said in an August Instagram video, “stop asking a motherfucking Black woman to explain themselves to you.”
Celeb endorsements are common in the modern political era and Hollywood elites have become public facing delegates. Notably, the disgraced music executive P Diddy launched the “Vote or Die!” campaign in 2004 through his organization Citizen Change, an attempt to thwart George Bush’s reelection. While this tradition is longstanding, the advent of social media has intensified the connections between a celebrity or influencer and their fans and consumers, and thus the potential reach and impact of these choices. Leveraging that parasocial economy via vocal celebrity advocates has been a potent short-term option for the Harris campaign to fan enthusiasm.
But ultimately, celebrities are not campaign or policy specialists, and a reliance on them can preclude straightforward engagement on issues. One glaring example is Gaza – while delegates such as the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have alleged that Harris is actively working toward a ceasefire, the candidate’s remarks strike a dissonant tone. Harris has acknowledged Palestinians’ right to self-determination over the years – yet in campaign speeches and at the recent debate, she has undercut ceasefire rhetoric by repeating, “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
These gestures have minimized the impact of the crisis, that has been described as a genocide and are a defense of Israel’s actions in the wake of broad international scrutiny, including by the international court of justice. The euphoria following Swift’s endorsement can ultimately register as alienating to young Democrats who have been actively campaigning for attention to this critical foreign policy issue – the voice of an emerging voting demographic overshadowed by the reach and impact of one of our biggest contemporary stars.
Celebrities are undoubtedly key for drumming up political enthusiasm, but over-reliance on their reach can quickly become a double-edged sword. As the Harris-Walz campaign continues through the last two months of election season, it will need to land on a unified message that will reach all the voters it seeks to court.
