Washington: This time in the US elections, many celebrities openly came out in support of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. In Donald Trump's rally, American billionaire Elon Musk started dancing on stage. At the same time, famous Hollywood actress Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn were among the dozens of celebrities who gathered to lend their support to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August.

Taylor Swift's Instagram post caused a stir

Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift have openly supported Kamala Harris. Singer Beyonce and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris hugged on stage while attending a campaign rally in Houston, Texas, which went viral on social media. While there is a list of celebrities supporting Kamala Harris, celebrities supporting Trump are rarely seen.

However, experts believe that celebrities will not change people's minds. Whatever policies the current government has and the policies of the upcoming government will remain in people's minds. But obviously celebrities do influence people's minds.

As one example, Taylor Swift posted on Instagram in September to support Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Nearly 400,000 people then clicked on the voter information website she linked to in her post. It's unclear how many of those people actually registered, but in 2023, the website Vote.org registered more than 35,000 new voters after a post by Swift linked to their site.

Celebrities matter in elections

This time the election is said to be very close, so the celebrity influence matters a lot. American singer Bad Bunny and American basketball player LeBron James can move 5,000 to 10,000 voters in Nevada or Pennsylvania.

Among those supporting Trump are Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief Dana White, and celebrities like wrestler Hulk Hogan and singer Kid Rock. The extremely popular comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan has not officially endorsed Trump but for the past few days he has been sharing pro-Trump posts on his social media.

Experts agree that endorsements are perhaps most valuable as indicators of a campaign's attempt to establish its identity. Moreover, they believe the growing dominance of celebrity endorsements offers a glimpse into the direction presidential campaigns are headed in the future.

Besides Musk, these people also support Trump 

Trump lacks traditional celebrities, but the support of tech giants like Musk matters a lot. Apart from Musk, the group includes David Sacks, Marc Andreessen and JD Vance - all celebrities supporting Trump in their own way. They are also potentially attracting a specific type of voter.