Bernie, Biden, and the Celebrities
Bernie Sanders has many more celebrity supporters than Joe Biden does, but at the time of this writing Biden is considered the favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Does this prove that celebrity endorsements either do not work, or actually harm a candidate? Not at all!
One mistake many pundits make after an election is to look for which candidate had the most celebrity endorsers, and if he or she did not win to claim celebrity endorsements failed. The reality is a little more complicated. Celebrities bring a number of important elements when they endorse candidates. Each election is unique, and so far the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has not demonstrated that celebrity endorsements don’t work.
First, both Biden and Bernie can claim substantial celebrity support. While actors Matt McGorry, Cynthia Nixon and Kirsten Dunst among many other entertainers have endorsed Bernie, Joe Biden has Vivica Fox, Alyssa Milano, Keegan-Michael Key and many others on his side. Both candidates have attracted a significant amount of celebrity support. Each has enough celebrity support where it is fair to say they have cleared a minimum threshold to show that they have checked the box of attracting celebrity support. The difference between the two may not be as important as both having competed successfully in the arena of attracting celebrities.
Celebrity endorsements are more than just words expressed by celebrities in favor of one politician over another. They also involve actions. After Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday comeback, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Key and others attended a Biden fundraiser in Bel Air. Tickets for the event started at $1,000. Celebrities can afford such prices or more, and pizzazz and fundraising are among the benefits A-List celebrity endorsers bring to a campaign. So, while Biden may currently have less celebrity support than Bernie, he has some, and his celebrities are working for him just as hard as Bernie’s are.
While Bernie is ahead of Biden with celebrities and yet does not currently appear to be the front-runner to win the nomination, that doesn’t mean that his celebrity support has not benefitted him in what was always an unlikely campaign for President. It is rather impressive that an independent who sometimes sounds like he opposes the Democratic Party as strongly as he dislikes Republican policies has made it as far as he has in the quest to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. As a self-described socialist he already finished second in 2016, and is not mathematically eliminated yet. This is impressive. I wouldn’t argue that celebrity supporters are the only reason Bernie has made it this far, but they have helped.
Bernie’s celebrity supporters include actor and model Emily Ratajkowski, who has 1.5 million followers on Twitter. Her support for Sanders has appeared in such non-political publications as Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. This allows the Sanders’ message to reach those young people who are not necessarily seeking political news, but find it anyway packaged with the soft news they consume. Scholars call this “incidental exposure,” and it is a useful way for candidates to reach less politically motivated people. Bernie’s problem has been motivating these young potential voters to turn out in caucuses and primaries. According to NPR, “Of the 14 states that held primary contests on Tuesday, participation by voters younger than 30 didn’t exceed 20% in any state, according to an analysis of exit polls.” Sanders’ campaign and their celebrity supporters are not alone in not being able to motivate young people to vote in caucuses and primaries.
Many of the same characteristics that make traditional endorsers effective apply to celebrities as well, including credibility. On Sunday, March 8, actor Matt McGorry offered a master-class in how to be a credible celebrity endorser during an interview on MSNBC. The Bernie supporter made a calm, reasoned argument in favor of Sanders’ specific policies. He didn’t strongly attack other candidates, and his interview could persuade undecided Democrats that the bolder plans presented by Bernie are superior to the more incremental approach supported by Biden. Plus, if Biden wins the nomination, it’ll be easier for McGorry to support him and remain consistent.
Both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden have attracted significant celebrity support. Whoever wins the Democratic Party’s nomination is likely to garner much more. That Biden appears to be more likely to win the nomination does not prove that celebrity endorsements don’t work. It just confirms that celebrity endorsements have become a common element of presidential campaigns.
David J. Jackson is professor of political science at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. His major research interests include the links between young people’s entertainment media use habits and their political preferences, as well as celebrity involvement in politics.
