WASHINGTON (AP) – Kamala Harris has Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Donald Trump has Kid Rock, Waka Flocka Flame and Hulk Hogan.
As the 2024 campaign whirls into its final week, Democrats are noticeably leaning on their star power advantage, calling on a diverse range of celebrities to endorse Harris, invigorate audiences and, they hope, spur people to the ballot box.
Democrats have long enjoyed a celebrity advantage and used it to close out presidential campaigns when attention and energy are critical. That upper hand has grown during Trump’s rise, a period that saw scores of celebrities, even apolitical stars, break their silence and speak out against the Republican leader.
The advantage often means raucous, fiery events in the closing days of a race, but history – namely Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign – highlights how the energy at those events can sometimes paper over broader issues with a candidate.
Weeks before the election, Harris got an assist from music legend Stevie Wonder in Jonesboro, Georgia, who rallied people with a rendition of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.
Days later in Atlanta, Harris and former president Barack Obama headlined a rally that featured a performance by Springsteen and speeches from famed filmmaker Spike Lee and actor Samuel L Jackson. The campaign followed that up a day later with a rally in Texas featuring a performance by Willie Nelson and a speech from Beyonce.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has also benefited from the celebrity push. Singer-songwriter James Taylor performed at events with the governor in North Carolina earlier in the month. And Walz, along with Harris, spoke at an event in Michigan on Monday that included a five-song set from singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers.
“I come for Harris,” said Ashley Oberheide, a neighbourhood resident who attended the outdoor Harris rally held in Ann Arbor’s Burns Park. “I love that musical acts are getting behind her, but I am always here for Harris.” She called Rogers an “added bonus”.
Audrey Hudson, a University of Michigan nursing student who voted for the first time days before the rally, described her attendance as “doing a civic duty combined with seeing an artiste I love”.
“I’m here to support Kamala and Walz as well but Maggie Rogers, I have loved her music since I was in middle school. She’s had a huge impact on me,” said Hudson, who added that she thinks artistes like Rogers are more relatable to young voters and can impact how they vote. Ann Arbor resident Rachel Lieberman, 29, shared that the rally in her hometown was her third Harris event and that Rogers was a “cherry on top” she believes will help drive out the youth vote.
“I think it’s all part of getting the younger generations mobilised to vote,” Lieberman said.
Harris and Democrats aren’t just leaning on performances at events, either. After Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian who spoke at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean”, the Democrat’s campaign received public support from rapper Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and artiste Ricky Martin, three of the best known Puerto Rican celebrities. The three have over 300 million followers combined on different social media platforms.
Many of the events are part of Harris’ “When We Vote We Win” concert series that aims to spur supporters to vote early in key battlegrounds. And she is expected to have more high-profile endorsers in the coming days.
When she campaigned in Wisconsin yesterday, her rally in Madison featured performances from Gracie Abrams, Mumford & Sons, Remi Wolf and The National’s Matt Berninger and Aaron Dessner.
Today, her rally in Arizona will have Los Tigres del Norte, a famed norteño band originally from Sinaloa, Mexico. And finally, tomorrow, Harris will headline a rally in Las Vegas featuring Maná, a Mexican pop rock band originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, and a speech from Lopez.
The 2020 campaign was a celebrity outlier. Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, large campaign events were uncommon, especially on the Democratic side. Celebrities appeared in social media videos for then-former vice president Joe Biden, who went on to defeat Trump. Trump does enjoy the support of celebrities with a deep appeal to his core base of voters, like singer Lee Greenwood, television personality Dr Phil McGraw and former football stars like Brett Favre, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell.
Country singer Jason Aldean recently spoke at a Trump rally in Georgia and Nick Bosa, a star defensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers, recently jumped into a teammate’s post-game interview to show a MAGA hat.
But the Republican candidate largely doesn’t have an answer for Harris’ celebrity-infused events. – Dan Merica
