Brent Buchanan, Alabama native and founder of polling firm Cygnal, joined The Sean Spicer Show on Monday to analyze the effects of celebrity endorsements on the 2024 Presidential Election.
According to Buchanan, endorsements of Kamala Harris from several celebrities may have played a large role in her loss. He believes that the blame for the failed celebrity endorsement campaign lies with the”coastal elites” who currently control the Democrat Party.
“The Democrats are incredibly out-of-touch and believe most of America is stupid…those “dumb Americans” swept Trump and a trifecta Republican government into power,” said Buchanan.
"The Coastal Elite thought that all these artists being condescending to voters was a great idea. That's why [Kamala's] campaign spent millions of dollars paying people to show up at events and either sing a song or endorse her, and it had no effect." – @brentbuc pic.twitter.com/74eDjtz83v
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) December 16, 2024
The graphic below offers a breakdown of the celebrities and notable names that served as surrogates for President-elect Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It indicates how effective they were in comparison to one another.
🚨WILD NEW POLL: Trump vs Harris surrogate effectiveness.@elonmusk: 47%
Taylor Swift: 27.3%@joerogan: 21.9%@RobertKennedyJr: 21.6%
Oprah Winfrey: 15.8%
Beyoncé: 9.8%@VivekGRamaswamy: 9.0%Amazing poll by @brentbuc @cygnal pic.twitter.com/nyoqAKaAgS
— Yitz Friedman (@friedman_yitz) December 16, 2024
The top and most effective surrogate for Donald Trump was Elon Musk at 47%. Harris’s main surrogate, Taylor Swift, by comparison, showed 23.7% effectiveness in rallying voters. That represents a margin of more than 2:1. Oprah Winfrey was the next most effective surrogate for Kamala Harris with a 15.8% rate of effectiveness. Rounding out Harris’s top three surrogates was Beyonce with 9.8%.
The price of support from celebrities was not cheap for the Harris campaign. Per NBC, it paid $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company. It gave $165,000 to a production company with ties to Beyoncé, who spoke at a late October rally in Houston. Additionally, companies affiliated with musicians Katy Perry, Ricky Martin, and Christina Aguilera received six-figure payments. Musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, and Jason Isbell also received payments.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
