Celebrities endorsing presidential candidates is nothing new, but with the rise of social media, this past election brought more to these public figures' opinions into the spotlight. The number of stars backing Hillary greatly outweighed the number backing Trump, yet Trump took home the win. This made people question whether celebrity endorsements make any difference in elections.
Stars think they have a huge influence on the general public and while they are seen by many, their political stands do not necessarily cause people to change their own political views.
People like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Anne Hathaway also visited college campuses encouraging students to vote. Millennials are known to be a celebrity and social media obsessed generation, so campaigning to them was a smart tactic, but it did not have much of an effect on voter turnout.
55 percent of millennials (18-29 year olds) voted for Clinton and 37 percent voted for Trump and republican voter turnout in this age group was the fourth-lowest turnout since 1972. Even with that, voter turnout in states Trump won were, on average, unchanged, but in states where Clinton won, turnout dropped by an average of 2.3 percentage points.
In Utah, despite pushing for the millennial vote, Evan McMullin, who was ahead in the polls the week of the election, Trump still won the state. Maybe McMullin would have won Utah with a few celebrities on his side, but there is no way to tell.
So, back to the question: Do we care about celebrities involved in elections? The answer is inconclusive because there is no real proof celebrity endorsements have any effect on voters.
