Kamala Harris, the presidential hopeful and democratic candidate for 2024, has been running a celebrity-laced campaign from the start, even if she had no intention of it.
As soon as Charli XCX declared Kamala to be “brat” the day after Joe Biden dropped out of the running for a second term, she was associated with celeb backing, even in Charli XCX herself is British and can’t actually vote in the election. Regardless, Kamala became the pop culture ticket.
It’s something consistently reinforced by her comparison to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character on Veep - Kamala is the candidate who leads the memes instead of becoming the butt of them.
And now she’s set to cement these celebrity endorsements at the Democratic National Convention, with none other than Louis-Dreyfus herself set to attend, as well as a host of other famous faces.
Donald Trump made his attempt at a star-studded convention last month when he brought out Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock at the Republican National Convention in July, but Harris is linked to notably bigger names - including Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who both endorsed her as Joe Biden’s VP in 2020.
Both Beyoncé and Swift are dominating conversations around celebrities set to attend the event, but have yet to confirm any kind of attendance. So who will be there?
John Legend is expected to attend, headlining a show on Tuesday for Illinois governor JB Pritzker, according to reports. It’s not a massive reach by any means - the singer previously performed a cover of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” at the Lincoln Memorial during the inauguration ceremony for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It’s unknown if his wife, presenter Chrissy Teigen, will be coming along, but the pair tend to travel together and recently made a joint appearance at the Paris Olympics, so it’s looking likely.
On Wednesday afternoon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus will be present, hosting a panel with the country’s eight Democratic governors who are women.
Later that night, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts will perform at a benefit concert thrown by Hollywood non-profit, Creative Coalition.
Meanwhile an impressive roster of actors are expected to attend, including Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn (of Scandal fame, sadly not reprising their romance… I mean roles) who are both expected to host sections of the convention alongside Mindy Kaling, Busy Philipps, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Danai Gurira, Tim Daly, Uzo Aduba, Anthony Anderson, Iain Armitage, David Cross and Jon Cryer.
If it all feels a little like an Oscars afterparty, consider this: a recent study by Harvard University found that celebrities play a hugely influential role in promoting civic participation.
“While some polling shows that people claim they aren’t influenced by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence indicates that these voices are incredibly powerful,” the study said.
“Celebrities have a unique ability to connect with younger generations in ways that mainstream media and other get-out-the-vote efforts may not be able to. Their control of and presence on social media positions them as centralized sources of information to be tapped into and utilized by those looking to increase voter participation.”
