2024: Queen B makes Harris her choice
Her song “Freedom” was already serving as the official campaign anthem for the Democratic presidential candidate. On Friday, October 25, at a rally in Houston, Texas, pop star Beyoncé Knowles came in person to pledge her support for Kamala Harris in the run-up to the November 5 election. “I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” she said in a short speech focused primarily on defending women’s rights. Harris’ campaign had already benefited from the official support of numerous stars, such as singer Taylor Swift, who explained the reasons behind her vote for this “steady-handed, gifted leader” to her 284 million Instagram followers, on September 10.
2012: Clint Eastwood draws for Romney
He has never made a secret of his Republican sympathies. After endorsing John McCain in 2008, American actor and director Clint Eastwood worked especially hard to help Mitt Romney triumph over Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election. “The country needs a boost,” “Dirty Harry” explained at an August 2012 fundraiser for the Republican candidate. A few days later, at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, he delivered a speech of an imaginary dialogue with Obama’s empty chair. The performance, deemed strange by observers, did not bring luck to Mormon Mitt Romney, who was soundly beaten by the incumbent president.
2008: Oprah Winfrey boosts Obama
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Oprah Winfrey worked hard to elect the first Black president in US history. Her support began during the very close Democratic primary duel between Obama, then a young senator from Illinois, and former first lady Hillary Clinton. After raising $3 million in one evening at her California estate, the talk-show queen – described at the time by CNN as “the world’s most powerful woman” – accompanied Obama on a road show through three key primary states: New Hampshire, South Carolina and Iowa. According to two economists at the University of Maryland, her support brought Obama close to a million votes in his race for the nomination.
1980: Charlton Heston supports his friend Reagan
His change of direction was radical. In the 1960s, actor Charlton Heston had been an activist for the civil rights movement before campaigning for Democratic presidential candidates: Adlai Stevenson against Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, then John Fitzgerald Kennedy against Richard Nixon in 1960. However, in 1972, the star of Ben-How, The Ten Commandments and Planet of the Apes joined the Republican side, this time supporting Nixon against McGovern. Eight years later, he helped former actor and friend Ronald Reagan in his conquest of the White House. Heston would continue this conservative transformation as head of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), the powerful firearms lobby, of which he was the president from 1998 to 2003.
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