Los Angeles (USA), June 15 (EFE).- With Robert De Niro in favor of Democrat Joe Biden and Dennis Quaid supporting Republican Donald Trump, the candidates for the US presidency seek to influence voters with all the resources at their fingertips, including the power of celebrities at the polls.
On May 24, De Niro warned: “Trump wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it.” His familiar voice narrated a Biden campaign audiovisual ad, titled ‘Snapped’, where he accused the former president of having been “out of control” during his term (2017-2021) and warned that his candidacy made him a a potential “dictator.”
Days later, ‘The Godfather’ actor appeared outside the courthouse where Trump’s trial was being held in New York for falsifying business records to call him a “jester” and ask people not to vote for him. him on November 5.
Like every four years, other artists have already become involved in the campaigns. Lenny Kravitz and Barbra Streisand have taken a stand for Biden, who is trailing slightly in the polls, and have spearheaded fundraising efforts.
And this Saturday George Clooney, one of the most influential figures in Hollywood, will do the same along with Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama at another fundraising event for Biden in Los Angeles in which they will try to repeat the success that Biden obtained when In March he raised $25 million at a similar event in New York.
According to William Dunlap, professor of law at Quinnipiac University School of Law (Connecticut), the power of these big stars could be crucial in these “apparently close” elections, in which, according to the average of surveys carried out by pages such as 538, Trump leads Biden by 1.1 percentage points.
“The relevance of artists or celebrities depends on the votes they can attract to a candidate or a party. Electoral results are a matter of votes and it does not matter if they are achieved with the support of a celebrity or by campaigning door to door,” Dunlap tells EFE.
Trump also has allies, such as the actor Dennis Quaid, who has praised the businessman on numerous occasions, and in the past he has counted on figures such as Chuck Norris, Kid Rock or Kelsey Grammer.
Artist support for both candidates could intensify in the coming months, and according to Dunlap, the Democrats have the upper hand in their ability to recruit talent: “The Republicans don’t seem to have a celebrity capable of generating a lot of participation.”
In the history of the United States, historical support from celebrities to candidates has been reflected, such as the extensive mobilization of the music industry promoted by Frank Sinatra in favor of the candidacy of John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) in 1960.
However, Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Institute of Public Affairs and professor of political science at Syracuse University, does not believe that celebrities joining their campaigns will make a difference this time: “Evidence has shown that in reality that It doesn’t matter too much,” he tells EFE.
The specialist reached this conclusion due to cases such as the 2016 elections, in which the then Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite having obtained the support of dozens of celebrities, among whom De Niro, Viola Davis, Matt Damon stood out. , Clooney or Glenn Close.
This year, the icing on the cake for the candidates would be to get the approval of Taylor Swift, who has previously supported the Democratic party, as she could attract a large number of votes from a decisive sector in the elections: young people.
“Someone like Swift, and there are very few of that nature, can be important, especially among younger voters, key to the Democratic coalition, but the problem is that they are very unreliable in terms of participation,” says Reeher.
It is also possible that support for a candidate in these highly polarized elections could harm his or her career.
And although in 2018 Swift’s support for two Democratic candidates competing in the elections in her home state, Tennessee, led to the registration of 65,000 new Democratic voters in 24 hours, her support did not achieve her victory, so having the singer in its alignment does not ensure the victory of Biden or Trump.
