- Beyoncé is finally hitting the trail with Kamala Harris, The Washington Post reports.
- Celebrity endorsements usually aren’t much of a factor, experts told BI.
- But in a tight race, there could be situations where an endorsement might mater.
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is finally in “Formation” with the Kamala Harris campaign.
The internet was abuzz with false reports of a DNC appearance in August — but Beyoncé is finally hitting the trail with Harris on Friday in Houston. She’ll appear with her mother, Tina Knowles, and country music legend Willie Nelson, The Washington Post reports.
While her track “Freedom” has been a Harris stump staple, Beyoncé has yet to formally endorse the vice president.
Reps for Beyoncé did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
But with all eyes on Taylor Swift and Beyoncé this year, do celebrity endorsements even matter? “The short answer is we don’t know for sure — and probably not,” said Mark Harvey, author of “Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion, and Issue-Based Advocacy.”
Celebrity endorsements date back to Al Jolson’s support for Warren Harding in the 1920 election, Harvey said, but most people vote on party identity, ideology, and issues.
Cayce Myers, a public relations professor at Virginia Tech, told BI that celebrity endorsements tend to have “minimum impact.” They can amplify attention and enthusiasm, but “it will not make you like a candidate that you already do not like.”
Democrats have more and higher-profile celebrity endorsements, Harvey said. But Trump’s victory in 2016 shows how other factors prevail.
There could be some exceptions this year
There could be some situations where an endorsement might matter, given the historically thin margins of this year’s race.
If the election comes down to a small number of votes, last-minute celebrity support could be “significant” on the voter turnout and fundraising fronts, Myers said.
While there’s little data on the issue, Harvey said studies have found an endorsement did unequivocally impact one race: when Oprah Winfrey came out for Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic Primary.
Loren Kajikawa, a professor of music and culture at George Washington University, said music can provide a unique window into a candidate’s persona.
Harris “doesn’t really make her identity a big part of explicitly her pitch to voters,” he said, but aligning with Beyoncé — “another strong black female” — could reinforce her historic candidacy in a way that Swift’s endorsement didn’t.
The Harris campaign is also being strategic by hosting events in celebrities’ hometowns, Harvey said, with Eminem in Detroit, Julia Roberts in Georgia, and Beyoncé in Houston.
The Friday rally remains unconfirmed, but it appears to have all of the makings of one of Beyoncé’s masterfully-curated, eleventh-hour reveals — complete with a nod to her “Cowboy Carter” duet partner.
“Beyoncé knows how to make an entrance,” Kajikawa said.
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