This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 24 episode of “The Beat with Ari Melber.”
Presidential campaigns try to reach voters any way they can: rallies and news interviews for the faithful or ads, direct mail, and other methods to break through to people who don’t follow politics and news.
Donald Trump has long used PR tactics and celebrity to burnish his brand and it’s clearly bothered him when those same celebrities and artists embrace his opponents over him. It’s something he has referenced in years of campaigning.
Musicians and stars have long been part of presidential campaigns, but they matter even more now because they can directly reach their fans online.
“We don’t need Jay-Z or Beyoncé,” Trump told a crowd in Michigan in 2016. “We don’t need Jon Bon Jovi. We don’t need Lady Gaga.”
However, this year, Trump was clearly rattled by losing the Taylor Swift endorsement to Kamala Harris, declaring afterward that he “hates” her — a kind of visceral response to rejection familiar to anyone with high school experience. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter appears to be a Swiftie, drawing new headlines and hitting a show during the campaign homestretch.
Since entering the presidential race, Harris has snagged far more high-profile endorsements from entertainers than Trump. On Thursday, the vice president hosted a star-studded rally in Atlanta featuring Bruce Springsteen, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and Tyler Perry.
Musicians and stars have long been part of presidential campaigns but they matter even more now because they can directly reach their fans online. The Swift endorsement came with a call for voter registration that directly led to over 400,000 visits to Vote.gov in less than 24 hours.
Earlier this week, Eminem rallied for Harris in Detroit, where he is far more popular than any politician. The vice president’s campaign hopes the endorsement will help boost turnout in the rapper’s hometown.
The cultural and political impact of Beyoncé personally campaigning for Harris is widely understood as huge. But one artist has loomed above virtually all others: Beyoncé. Her song “Freedom” became the Harris campaign’s anthem — with approval, of course. Beyoncé and her husband, Jay-Z, have backed Democrats before. In 2008, she had the special role of singing “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s first inaugural ball. Despite allowing the vice president to use her music on the campaign trail, Beyoncé has not actually appeared with Harris yet. In August, rumors that she might perform at the Democratic National Convention upended political and pop culture news after the website TMZ said she would appear. Those rumors turned out to be false but the speculation ignited an instant frenzy. The cultural and political impact of Beyoncé personally campaigning for Harris is widely understood as huge. She has more Instagram followers than Swift, with over 300 million. Her tours reveal a remarkably committed fan base — the new one, the “Renaissance World Tour,” reportedly boosted the U.S. economy by $4 billion. And now, after all the intrigue in this critical homestretch, the Harris campaign has announced Beyoncé will appear with Harris in person at a rally in her hometown of Houston on Friday. The appearance is already making headlines, prompting excitement that the campaign views as critical to its get-out-the-vote efforts around the country. Outlets are already slugging the news alongside other major campaign developments. So as Beyoncé says in the theme song of the year, “I’ma keep running / ‘Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
Ari Melber
Ari Melber, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, writer and attorney, is the host of “The Beat with Ari Melber” airing nightly at 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC. He also serves as MSNBC’s chief legal correspondent and an NBC News legal analyst. Before joining MSNBC, Melber practiced First Amendment law and served as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate. He received a J.D. from Cornell Law School and is a member of the New York Bar.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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