{"id":815,"date":"2024-11-11T18:10:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T18:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/?page_id=815"},"modified":"2024-11-15T15:30:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T15:30:43","slug":"star-supporters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/star-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"Star supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Prof. John Street <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia, and the author of Media, Politics and Democracy<\/em> (Bloomsbury, 2021), Music and Politics<\/em> (Polity, 2012), and co-author of the forthcoming Our Subversive Voice: the history and politics of English protest songs<\/em> (McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email: j.street@uea.ac.uk<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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U.S. Election 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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78. Momentum is a meme<\/a> (Prof Ryan M. Milner)
79. Partisan memes and how they were perceived in the 2024 U.S. presidential election<\/a> (Dr Prateekshit \u201cKanu\u201d Pandey, Dr Daniel Lane)
80. The intersection of misogyny, race, and political memes... America has a long way to go, baby!<\/a> (Dr Gabriel B. Tait)
81. Needs Musk: Trump turns to the manosphere<\/a> (Dr Michael Higgins, Prof Angela Smith)
82. \u201cWooing the manosphere: He\u2019s just a bro.\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s digital transactions with \"dude\" influencers<\/a> (Prof Mark Wheeler)
83. Star supporters<\/a> (Prof John Street)
84. Pet sounds: Celebrity, meme culture and political messaging in the music of election 2024<\/a> (Dr Adam Behr)
85. The stars came out for the 2024 election. Did it make a difference?<\/a> (Mark Turner)
86. Podcasting as presidential campaign outreach<\/a> (Ava Kalinauskas, Dr Rodney Taveira)
87. Value of TV debates reduced during Trump era<\/a> (Prof Richard Thomas, Dr Matthew Wall)
88. America\u2019s \u201cfun aunt\u201d: How gendered stereotypes can shape perceptions of women candidates<\/a> (Dr Caroline Leicht)<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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One of the strangest sentences, from an election campaign that did not lack for strangeness, was uttered by Tim Walz in his debate with J.D. Vance. “I\u2019m as surprised as anybody of this coalition that Kamala Harris has built,” he said, “from Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift.”\u00a0\u00a0He was wearing as he spoke, and as\u00a0Billboard<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>noted, “Eras Tour-inspired friendship bracelets.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most political analysts might be comfortable with the idea of Cheney\u2019s or Sanders\u2019s political constituencies, even if it is a stretch to see them as part of a coalition. But they might \u2013 not unreasonably – be mystified by what is meant by the \u2018constituency\u2019 of a global pop superstar. She may have passionate fans in prodigious numbers, but that is not the same as representing their interests or values.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walz\u2019s claim followed Swift\u2019s much publicised (and much anticipated) endorsement of Harris after her only debate with Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0Swift<\/a>\u00a0told her 280+ million Instagram followers, “if you haven\u2019t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most.” Then she announced her own decision: “I\u2019m voting for\u00a0@kamalaharris<\/a>\u00a0because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” “Remember that in order to vote,” she ended, “you have to be registered!\u2019” signing off as “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not just another, albeit well expressed, celebrity endorsement. It was coming from an extraordinarily successful and highly skilled songwriter, with a vast army of supporters, whose fanbase had been carefully nurtured by Swift (and the corporate network that supports her) from adolescence to voting age. Nor was this her first entry into the political realm. She had taken stands on other public issues and encouraged voter registration in previous elections. She was Time<\/em>\u2019s Person of the Year in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris<\/a>\u00a0was rather more cautious than her running mate in acknowledging her newly won celebrity advocate: “I am very proud to have the support of Taylor Swift. She\u2019s an incredible artist. I really respect the courage that she has had in her career to stand up for what she believes is right.”\u00a0\u00a0Her campaign team were less reticent, using rally\u00a0billboards<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 “I\u2019m in my voting era” – that reminded supporters of Harris\u2019s famous admirer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift\u2019s intervention was inevitably accompanied by much speculation about what, if any, significance it held for the election outcome. An unofficial \u2018Swifties for Kamala\u2019 campaign group was formed, which, according to Vogue<\/em><\/a>, raised $213k. A\u00a0BBC story<\/a>\u00a0supplied anecdotal evidence of fans who said they had been swayed by their idol. More cautiously, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0reported that “Ms. Swift\u2019s endorsement in September drove about 406,000 people to Vote.gov, a government-run website with voter-registration tools, but that number does not mean that many people actually registered to vote.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift may have been the most high profile musical celebrity recruited to the Democratic cause, but she was not alone. Beyonc\u00e9, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Insane Clown Posse, Willie Nelson and Jennifer Lopez were also part of the campaign, each welcomed, we might guess, because they are assumed to reach a particular demographic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republicans, as always, struggled to find rival performers (if not rival billionaires), having to settle for the likes of Joe Aldean and Kid Rock. But, as is often noted, it is a mistake to assume that fandom translates directly to political support. Privileged superstars can inspire resentment as well as adoration, as Donald Trump seemed to recognise when he was reported<\/a> to sneer at Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, there is research which suggests that endorsements can indeed make a difference. It is true that the findings often depend upon\u00a0experimental work<\/a>\u00a0(with a captive audience of students), but sometimes it makes use of\u00a0natural experiments<\/a>\u00a0in the world beyond the campus. Mostly, though, it predates the Swift phenomenon. However, a recent article in\u00a0American Political Research<\/em><\/a>\u00a0concludes, on the basis of another university-based experiment, that Taylor Swift could have an impact. “A minor celebrity may influence a relatively small number of voters,” the authors write, “but a super celebrity [like Swift] can potentially influence many more voters, and as long as presidential elections in the US come down to several thousand voters in a handful of swing states, these celebrities ought to be taken seriously as political influencers.”\u00a0Quite how seriously Taylor Swift affected this campaign, we may never know. We can be sure, though, that the media will continue to get excited by, speculate about, celebrity support and impact. And\u00a0political scientists<\/a>, while reluctant to adopt the idea of Cheney-Sanders-Swift coalitions, will be aware of how – in a post-democratic world – stars can be deemed more \u2018considerate, competent, credible, intelligent and trustworthy than most politicians.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. John Street  Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia, and the author of Media, Politics and Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2021), Music and Politics (Polity, 2012), and co-author of the forthcoming Our Subversive Voice: the history and politics of English protest songs (McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press, 2025). Email: j.street@uea.ac.uk  One of the strangest sentences, from an election campaign that did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1019,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-815","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nStar supporters - Election Analysis - United States<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2024\/section-7-popular-culture\/star-supporters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star supporters - Election Analysis - United States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prof. John Street  Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia, and the author of Media, Politics and Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2021), Music and Politics (Polity, 2012), and co-author of the forthcoming Our Subversive Voice: the history and politics of English protest songs (McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press, 2025). 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