CELEBRITY
Taylor Swift, Beyoncé or Kim Kardashian’s endorsement wouldn’t necessarily influence voters, new poll shows
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé may be some of the most popular acts in U.S. music history, but they don’t appear to have much influence in politics, and a new poll shows their endorsements could even hurt a candidate, according to a Suffolk University/USA TODAY national poll of registered voters.
Just 3% of voters said a Swift or Beyoncé endorsement would influence them “a lot” while 89% said Swift’s endorsement would not matter at all or make them less likely to support the candidate. Beyoncé’s thumbs down was 91%.
Kim Kardashian, who has hundreds of millions of followers on social media, fared worse. Not one respondent of the 500 registered voters indicated that her endorsement would matter a lot, while 96% said it would not matter at all or make them less likely to support a candidate. Ironically, Kardashian has made a serious commitment to prison reform in addition to being a major stakeholder in the Armenia Fund, which builds schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and clean water in Armenia, and the Dream Foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill adults and their families.
But voters don’t see this, and perception is reality.
And it wasn’t just Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian who didn’t appear to matter in the poll. Not one person on the list of former politicians, sports figures and celebrities mattered either, suggesting that, in a race between two well-known presidents, Americans don’t want to be told who to vote for.