Celebrities are wary of endorsing Trump or Biden – too many were caught out four years ago

By the end of the 2016 campaign, we were jaded from hearing celebrities lecture us. This time, most are using their platforms simply to urge citizens to vote, writes Roisin O'Connor

Brad Pitt is one celebrity who has backed a candidate – Joe Biden (Getty)

As the US election looms, The Independent’s Culture section has been busy tracking what leading figures from the arts are saying about each candidate.  

Celebrity endorsements of presidential candidates are nothing new, of course, but this year the mood feels more serious than in 2016, when Donald Trump was running against Hillary Clinton. Trump’s win blindsided many who had backed Clinton, including Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Katy Perry.

Watching this year’s celebrity endorsement videos and reading what they have to say, it appears that stars of film, music, television and comedy have realised that some voters felt hectored in 2016. While a number of celebrities have endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the overarching message is more often simply a call for US citizens to use their vote, rather than an instruction of where to put their cross.

Others, like Brad Pitt, have opted to voice Biden campaign videos, reminding viewers to choose a president who will serve all Americans, not just the ones who voted for him.    

The urgency of this presidential race is reflected in the fact that a number of celebrities who usually remain quiet about politics are now speaking out. Dwayne Johnson – a self-described independent and currently one of the most-followed people on Instagram in the world – made his first ever endorsement this year, in a video that said Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are “the best choice to lead our country”. Taylor Swift, another celebrity who used to keep her political views to herself, has also endorsed Biden and Harris.  

Whether this year’s celebrity endorsements will have any sway on the election result remains to be seen. What they absolutely have done is help drive an unprecedented number of Americans to the polls. Earlier this month, pop star Ariana Grande urged the Floridians among her 280 million social media followers to register in her home state – a key battleground state – before the deadline closed. Hours later, Florida’s online registration site crashed due to a sudden surge in traffic. Laurel Lee, Florida’s secretary of state, reported an “unprecedented 1.1 million requests per hour” to register to vote. The deadline was extended by a day as a result of the demand.  

In my own discussions with musicians in interviews, I’ve also noticed that the tone has been far more measured than in 2016. While the response four years ago to Trump’s name being mentioned was often to dismiss him as a clown, or a monster, now there’s a wariness. No-one wants to be caught off guard again. In an interview with Slipknot, frontman Corey Taylor was more interested in discussing America’s widespread problems, such as gun culture. My colleague Alexandra Pollard encountered a similar theme in her interview with Hollywood star Forest Whitaker. “People are suffering through inequities of healthcare, economics, abuses, brutality, those things are still occurring,” he said. “And so we have to continue to try to correct those problems.”  

By the end of the 2016 campaign, I remember the Culture team – and it seemed the general public – were jaded from hearing celebrities lecture us about why Americans had to vote for Hillary Clinton. Using their platforms to urge citizens to use their vote at all, for the sake of true democracy if nothing else, seems like a far more productive approach, and one that people are more willing to respond to.

Yours,

Roisin O’Connor

Music correspondent