Do Celebrities Impact Your Politics?

Many individuals look up to celebrities every day. While we may look up to celebrities and even be entertained or swayed by them, do their opinions in regard to politics impact our own? In 2019, The Hill/Harris X polling asked 1,001 registered voters the following question: 

“Which best describes your opinion about political endorsements

from Hollywood and entertainment industry figures?”

The respondents of the poll were given the following three choices: 

“They make me more likely to vote for the candidate,” 

“They make me less likely to vote for the candidate,” or 

"They have no bearing on my vote.” 

65% of respondents said that political endorsements from celebrities had no effect on their voting. 24% of respondents said that celebrity endorsements would make them less likely to vote for the celebrity’s preferred candidate. 11% said that a celebrity endorsement would make them more likely to vote for that candidate. Per The Hill/Harris X, “The results reflect a nationally representative sample of registered voters. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, income, political party, and education where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.”

This is a trend that can be seen globally, not just in the United States. Per polling from Forbes and YouGov, “63% of Britons believe that celebrity opinions made no difference in their decisions, 25% said celebrity opinions had a negative effect, and only 5% said it had a positive effect. Studies as far back as 2007 found similar results, that while celebrity endorsements may raise awareness for a candidate, family members and significant others are far more influential than celebrities when it comes to preference for a political candidate.”

Between both of these polls, one big thing that stood out to us was that more people said celebrity endorsements had negative effects rather than positive ones. This can be interesting when we apply this thinking to the 2024 election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. While both candidates had a variety of celebrity endorsements, The Harris campaign put a larger emphasis on these celebrity endorsements, having rallies all the way through election day with big name celebrities like Beyonce and Oprah. While we are not saying that this was the only factor on why Harris lost, in an election with as thin margins in the swing states as the last one, any vote helps.

Therefore, celebrities do impact your politics. But contrary to what many campaigns and politicians believe, celebrity endorsements are actually a negative thing to receive for your campaign.