With less than a month until the November election, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is making its final push to ensure victory. It has enlisted the aid of one of the most astute and politically-educated groups of Americans: Hollywood celebrities.
The Hill reported that “The Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign scheduled celebrity-filled events for nearly every day this week. Tuesday featured three separate functions with some star wattage: a Latino-focused roundtable with comedian George Lopez, a ‘Star Trek’ discussion with ‘Next Generation’ alumnus LeVar Burton and a military service celebration with legendary TV producer Norman Lear.”
On Wednesday, the cast of NBC’s “The West Wing” reunited to hold a virtual trivia night to benefit the Biden Victory Fund. On Friday, the original cast of Broadway’s “Hamilton” — including Lin-Manuel Miranda, will have a fundraising reunion.
The Biden campaign on Friday announced that NBA legend Magic Johnson would also campaign for the former vice president over the weekend. He will travel to Detroit and Lansing, MI to participate in a “roundtable conversation about voting with Black men.” Kerry Washington, the star of television series “Scandal” will be headed to North Carolina on Saturday to push for early voting.
Adrienne Elrod, the campaign’s director of surrogate strategy, said: “We’ve been doing surrogate events with celebrities, influencers, high-profile individuals for a long time, but as we’re getting close to Election Day, we’re obviously ramping up.”
She continued, noting that these stars “bring in their fanbase who might not be engaged in the election, who might have questions about the candidate and the candidate’s positions.”
The Democratic Party has been relying heavily on celebrity star power to influence voters to support its candidates.
From The Hill:
“In August, ‘Nashville’ star Connie Britton joined Valerie Jarrett, the former senior adviser to President Obama, and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) for a pre-Democratic National Convention watch party, while ‘That 70’s Show’ actor Wilmer Valderamma joined former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro earlier this month for a Facebook chat about mobilizing the Latino vote.”
“We’re able to put those pairings together so that they can have an authentic conversation about the campaign and what we stand for, and as a result we’re opening up our campaign, our message to a broader audience that we would not normally be able to reach,” Elrod told The Hill.
Multiple entertainers have publicly endorsed the Democratic nominee, including alleged musician Taylor Swift, actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and “Captain America” star Chris Evans.
The Democrats have typically enjoyed the support of high-profile celebrities. Hollywood is controlled by white progressives, so this makes sense. But having these entertainers jump on to the campaign trail for a full-on last-minute push for Biden isn’t quite normal. It appears the polls showing Biden is ahead has not caused the campaign to get lazy. Perhaps they remember what happened in 2016 when polls showed Trump losing?
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