The Only Celebrity That Mattered in the Midterms Was That Guy from The Celebrity Apprentice

In the end, Beyoncé was not enough to save Beto O’Rourke, Taylor Swift could not turn things around for Tennessee’s Phil Bredesen, Rihanna’s endorsement was not enough to push Florida’s Andrew Gillum to the top, and—though votes are still being tallied—the mighty power of Oprah Winfrey, once credited with the entire presidency of Barack Obama or something, seemingly couldn’t save Stacey Abrams. On a night when the most powerful Democratic victories were about smaller-scale House races or statewide swings no pundit saw coming, the star-studded efforts on behalf of major midterm-election candidates fell noticeably flat. Not that some of the winners minded. Laura Ingraham used Swift’s lyrics against her, while others of the Ingraham ilk were running their own victory laps around her:

It’s a good reminder that our most famous citizens are not the problem with elections, nor are they the solution. These races were ultimately close calls in red states, where Democrats were the underdogs. Many were facing either or both systemic voter suppression or the uphill climb of gerrymandering. The high stakes were the reason why the Beyoncés of the world got involved in the first place, despite all the inherent drawbacks. When Bey and Rih and Travis Scott and the like choose to throw their weight behind politicians, particularly state-level politicians in areas where they do not live, they tend to lose no matter what they do. They get dismissed for speaking out of their lane, or worse: get called ineffective by their allies if they lose. But celebrities are just people with platforms that allow them to rise above the mushy middle. They make for easy targets—both for the media to glom on to when reporting on elections, and for their opponents, who tend to be Republicans, to use against them—because they stand out and have a certain amount cultural cache.

Though no major stars seem to have hit their marks this election—even Olivia Wilde couldn’t deliver a victory to her mom, Leslie Cockburn, in her House race in Virginia—Swift may have come the closest to measurable success. She made a specific and pointed plea on behalf of former governor Phil Bredesen for Senate in Tennessee, where she also votes. But while Tennessee has been good to her fan-wise, the vast majority of her 112 million Instagram followers live somewhere else. Knowing this, or maybe wanting to keep just one toe dipped in politics, Swift broadened her message to supporting fans who got out to vote, no matter what district they are in. On Tuesday, she shared to her Instagram Stories many users who tagged her in posts about voting, and sometimes first-time voting, in elections all over the country. Her Bredesen endorsement, as much as it may not have helped her campaign, had a visible impact on voter registration; after her Instagram post in early October, vote.org reported a surge in registrations nationwide, and new-voter numbers in Tennessee increased by thousands. Those are real gains.

But those gains, if incremental, are easy to dismiss when they’re delivered by fame. It’s all too easy to discount a celebrity, especially one whose fans tend to be young, white women, or young men and women of color. Take, for example, this reporter’s tweet that cites a poll (It’s unclear who was running the poll.):

It looks silly there in the cold light of percentages, but it’s not a silly thing to try to measure Swift’s impact. Even in the age of influence, influence still isn’t a well-understood phenomenon when it comes to elections. And you don’t need reminding, but there’s a literal celebrity in the White House. Trump built his fame on tabloid divorces and racist posturing, as well as being the “rich” guy who yelled at Bret Michaels and the other Baldwin on how to do business good. He leaned hard into multiple buzzy races, and is taking credit for the success. Trump, who could conjure up tabloid stories with one or two calls from publicist to the stars, “John Miller,”, has made harder to dismiss the role of celebrities in politics. But no matter how many times we re-litigate the question of how useful recognizable voices in elections really are, one answer remains fairly steady: you can’t pin all your hopes on the Taylor Swifts and Oprahs of the world, and you can’t blame them either.

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