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    Which celebrities have endorsed Kamala Harris and Donald Trump? Here are the biggest names

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    It is debatable what effect celebrity endorsements have on voters, but candidates always welcome them. Here are the highly contrasting groups of A-listers who have endorsed Kamala Harris and Donald Trump:Kamala HarrisBeyoncéView image in fullscreenThe music megastar spoke at a Harris rally in her hometown of Houston just days ago. To the 30,000-strong crowd, Beyoncé said: “I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother … Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations. …We must vote, and we need you.”Taylor SwiftView image in fullscreenThe pop phenom endorsed the Democratic nominee just minutes after the presidential debate in September between Harris and Trump. In an Instagram post published to her 283 million followers, Swift said: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election … I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”Bruce SpringsteenView image in fullscreenAt a Harris rally last month in Philadelphia, “the Boss” performed his 1978 The Promised Land and said: “Now, I understand folks have different opinions about things, but this election is about a group of folks who want to fundamentally undermine our American way of life … On November 5, I’m casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz – and I urge all of you who believe in the American dream to join me.”Stevie WonderView image in fullscreenThe legendary singer endorsed Harris at the Democratic national convention (DNC), saying: “This is a moment to tell your children where you were and what you did. … When we stand between history’s pain and tomorrow’s promises, we must choose courage over complacency.” The 74-year old also appeared in a Harris ad alongside filmdirector Spike Lee.Willie NelsonView image in fullscreenCountry-music original “outlaw” Nelson, 91, performed at Harris’s Houston rally where Beyoncé spoke. Wearing a colorful Harris-Walz shirt, Nelson rallied the crowd with: “Are we ready to say Madame President?”Oprah WinfreyView image in fullscreenThe billionaire multimedia executive and former talkshow host was a star of the DNC. Winfrey, who previously endorsed Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, swooped in, saying: “Soon, and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants … grew up to become the 47th president of the United States.”Julia RobertsView image in fullscreenIn a new ad last month, the enduring Hollywood A-lister urged the spouses of male supporters of Donald Trump to vote for Harris, saying: “In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know … Remember, what happens in the booth, stays in the booth. Vote Harris-Walz.” Kerry WashingtonView image in fullscreenWashington once played the White House communications director on the ABC TV show Scandal. She campaigned for Harris last month in Wisconsin. “You here in Wisconsin have the capacity to save the soul of this country, to really stand between us and a man who has said that he wants to be a dictator on day one, to stand between us and a man who said he wants generals more like Hitler’s generals,” Washington said to a gathering of Black women.Julia Louis-DreyfusView image in fullscreenThe Veep star endorsed Harris by making a distinction between her fictional vice-presidential character, Selina Meyer, and Harris. Dreyfus said to MSNBC: “Now, I do want to say one thing about the character I play on Veep… I play a very, shall we say, almost narcissistic, sociopathic, mega-maniacal type of person … I am not a Kamala Harris type. I am possibly much more like someone from the other party whose name I shall not even utter.”Jennifer LopezView image in fullscreenJennifer Lopez took to the rally stage in Las Vegas on Thursday to endorse Harris. In a 13-minute speech, Lopez, who is Puerto Rican, railed against comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist remarks about Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last weekend in New York. She said: “It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans that were offended that day, it was every Latino in this country, it was humanity and anyone of decent character … There is no candidate in the history of the presidency that is more qualified and there is no job that Kamala Harris can’t do.”EminemView image in fullscreenThe Detroit rapper and longtime critic of Donald Trump told a Harris rally in his home town: “I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution, of what people will do if you make your opinion known. I think Vice-President Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld.”Megan Thee StallionView image in fullscreenAn early endorser, the rapper spoke in Atlantain July, saying: “I want to start off by saying: hotties for Harris.” Performing a compilation of hit songs, the 29-year-old singer said: “We about to make history with the first female president, the first Black female president.”Bad BunnyView image in fullscreenThe Puerto Rican music star leapt onto Instagram straight after Hinchcliffe’s racist remarks.He posted about Harris criticizing Trump over his handling of relief efforts after Hurricanes Irma and Maria that devastated the island territory in 2017, where she said: “I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader.”Samuel L JacksonView image in fullscreenAddressing a rally of more than 20,000 people in Atlanta last month, the Hollywood A-lister said that Harris is “running on a proven track record of fighting for the people, standing up to bullies, protecting the most vulnerable and taking on the toughest fights… That’s the kind of president I can stand behind.”Magic JohnsonView image in fullscreenThe former basketball star rallied for Harris in Flint, Michigan, saying: “I’m here because I’ve known Kamala for over 20 years. Cookie [his wife] and I supported her run for attorney general back in the state of California, her run for senator, and now we support her as the vice-president but now the biggest moment for all of us, November 5, we have to do all we can to elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.”UsherView image in fullscreenThe rapper said in Atlanta that he is endorsing Harris “because she fights for everyone’s rights, for freedom, and it doesn’t matter where you [are] from … She has a vision for our country that includes everyone, a vision that supports small businesses, invests in our health, in our communities, and gives everyone a chance to get ahead.”LizzoView image in fullscreenAnother Detroit native, the music star joined Harris there last month, jabbing at Trump’s comment that if Harris wins, the “whole country will end up being like Detroit”. Lizzo fired back: “Proud like Detroit; resilient like Detroit. We’re talking about the same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry, so put some respect on Detroit’s name.”Tyler PerryView image in fullscreenThe producer and actor endorsed Harris in Atlanta, Georgia last month, saying: “I stand here, full-throated, with my full chest, begging you, imploring you: let’s get out and make Kamala Harris the 47th president of the United States.” Perry also spoke of the exonerated Central Park Five men whom Donald Trump once urged to be executed, saying: “I’ve watched him, from the Central Park Five to Project 2025 … and what I realized is that in this Donald Trump America, there is no dream that looks like me.”Arnold SchwarzeneggerView image in fullscreenThe Terminator actor and former Republican governor of California endorsed Harris just days ago, saying: “I will always be an American before I am a Republican.” He said that if Trump wins, “it will just be four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful”.LeBron JamesView image in fullscreenThe four-time NBA champion endorsed Kamala Harris just days ago by posting a video showing racist, anti-Hispanic comments made by both Trump and Hinchcliffe. In his caption, the Los Angeles Laker wrote: “What are we even talking about here?? When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!”Cardi BView image in fullscreenCardi B, who previously defended Harris from political misogyny, spoke at her rally in Milwaukee on Friday. She revealed that she wasn’t going to vote – until Harris leapt in. “She changed my mind completely. I did not have faith in any candidate until she joined the race,” she said, adding of her own story: “Just like Kamala Harris, I too have been the underdog. I’ve been underestimated, my success belittled and discredited…Women have to work 10 times harder, perform 10 times better, and still, people question us, how we got to the top.” She called Trump a business “hustler” who doesn’t “believe women deserve rights.”Donald TrumpHulk HoganView image in fullscreenThe former wrestler who once endorsed Barack Obama has thrown his support behind Trump. Hogan told the Republican national convention that “as an entertainer”, he tried to stay detached from politics but he could “no longer stay silent” due to “everything that’s happened to our country over the past four years”, adding: “We never had it better than the Trump years.”Elon MuskView image in fullscreenThe world’s richest man has been something of an “October surprise”, jumping up and down at Trump rallies and, allegedly illegally, handing out $1m checks to supporters. The owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX is donating $75m to America Pac, his pro-Trump political action committee. At one rally, Musk said: “I’m dark, gothic Maga” – Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.Kid RockView image in fullscreenIn an interview with Rolling Stone in May, the singer expressed his support for Trump, saying: “You think I like Trump because he’s a nice guy? … I’m not electing the deacon of a church. That motherfucker likes to win. He likes to cheat in his fucking golf game. I want that guy on my team. I want the guy who goes: “I’m going to fight with you.”YeView image in fullscreenIn February, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who visited Trump in the Oval Office during his presidency, was asked by paparazzi whether he still supports Trump. The rapper, who endorsed Trump in 2016, said: “Yeah, of course, it’s Trump all day.”Jon VoightView image in fullscreenThe 85-year-old actor, who was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2019 by Trump, has long expressed his support for the former president. “I’ve been the most outspoken supporter of Donald Trump in Hollywood,” Voight said in an interview with Variety in July. “I’ve been saying he’s the answer, the only answer,.”Mel GibsonView image in fullscreenLast month, the Braveheart actor was asked by a camera operator about who he was voting for, and he replied that Trump was “a good guess”. He said of Harris: “I know what it’ll be like if we let herin. And that ain’t good. Miserable track record. No policies to speak of. She’s got the IQ of a fence post.”Dr PhilView image in fullscreenThe television personality Phil McGraw appeared at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. He said: “Lord knows he doesn’t need me to stand up for him. He’s tough as an old army boot. He’s got lots of enemies, different groups that are scared, and between them, they have impeached him, indicted him, raided him, railroaded him, shot him and sued him. And where is he? He is still standing.”Dennis QuaidView image in fullscreenThe actor campaigned for Trump in Coachella valley, California, last month. Quaid, who played Ronald Reagan in a recent eponymous biopic as well as Bill Clinton in the 2010 film The Special Relationship, said that Trump is “my favorite president of the 21st century.”Roseanne BarrView image in fullscreenThe comedian endorsed Trump by describing him in 2013 as someone who “wraps his arms around us”, as well as a “mother bear”. In April, Barr posted a skit online in which she appeared to mock E Jean Carroll, the writer whom Trump was found liable by a New York civil court of sexually abusing. In the skit, Barr pretended to accuse Joe Biden of raping her 26 years ago in Bergdorf Goodman, in a parody of Carroll’s claim against Trump.Russell BrandView image in fullscreenIn an episode of his Stay Free with Russell Brand podcast in June, the actor and comedian expressed his support for the former president by saying: “They act as if a vote for Donald Trump is almost like you’re directly voting for Armageddon … But I’m starting to think that no, a greater threat to democracy is this kind of technological feudalism, that tells you that it cares about you and that it’s protecting vulnerable people, all the while increasing censorship, increasing the funding of wars, increasing the division between ordinary Americans.”Buzz AldrinView image in fullscreenThe second man to walk on the moon, the 94-year old former astronaut announced his endorsement for Trump last month, saying: “Under the first Trump administration, I was impressed to see how human space exploration was elevated, made a policy of high importance again…I believe the nation is best served by voting for Donald J Trump.” More

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      Conservatives fear LeBron’s influence, not his imaginary calls to violence

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      Conservatives threw a collective hissy fit over a familiar target last week: LeBron James. The NBA star had tweeted – then deleted – a post about the police killing of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Ohio. The context of the tweet is important.People around the world were on pins and needles, hoping that the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin didn’t go the same way as so many before. Officers such as Sean Williams (John Crawford), Timothy Loehmann (Tamir Rice), Daniel Pantaleo (Eric Garner), Betty Shelby (Terence Crutcher), Jarrett Tonn (Sean Monterrosa), and the six officers who killed Willie McCoy either have not faced charges or were found not guilty after killing Black and Latino men, despite video footage of the shootings. Qualified immunity, the police bill of rights and law enforcement unions dedicated to defending officers right or wrong, means it is a near impossibility to achieve a conviction in such cases. But Chauvin’s killing of George Floyd was different. For the first time in Minnesota state history, a white police officer was found guilty of murdering a Black man. The world let out a collective exhale of relief with the hope that the verdict could be the first step towards complete accountability for police officers. However, that jubilation was very short lived. Minutes after Chauvin’s guilty verdict was announced, news spread about the killing of Ma’Khia Bryant. The timing was devastating and tragic. As a result, LeBron took his angst to Twitter and posted a picture of the officer who shot Ma’Khia, along with the caption: “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY” and an hourglass emoji. Anyone with an elementary school level of education could see that LeBron’s tweet was not an incitement to violence. It didn’t say “#GetTheStrap” or “#DoUntoThemAsTheyHaveDoneUntoUs” or “#HideYaKidsHideYaWife” it read “#Accountability”. The outrage from the right followed anyway. “LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA,” Donald Trump said in a statement. Trump, not noted as a unifying force, continued with the statement: “He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!” The hypocrisy kept coming. Trump, of all people, then called LeBron a “racist” even though he had made no mention of the officer’s race in his tweet. The former president’s toadies also chimed in. Republican senator Ted Cruz said LeBron’s tweet was a “call for violence”. Another GOP senator, Tom Cotton, said LeBron’s statement was “disgraceful and dangerous”.If LeBron had made a mistake in posting a photo of the officer, he also made changes to fix it. He deleted the initial post then explained in a subsequent tweet that his demand for accountability should have been read in context. “ANGER does [not do] any of us any good and that includes myself! Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!”, he wrote. He clarified he wanted to address injustice in America as a whole. “This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism,” saying he was “so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police.” He added: “I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer.  it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 21, 2021
      So this wasn’t a demand for violence. In fact, allow me to illustrate what inciting violence actually looks like. On 17 April 2020, Trump tweeted his support for armed protests against physical distancing and other Covid-19 measures in three states led by Democratic governors. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” the then president wrote in capital letters. “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”. He followed up with a third tweet: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”This prompted former acting US assistant attorney general for national security Mary McCord to write that Trump had “incited insurrection” in his own country. It was the start of a campaign by Trump that would end in a mob of his supporters invading the US Capitol.“The timeline [of the Capitol attack] tracks 365 days that built up to that moment. It shows how the president often glorified violence as a tool to confront perceived political enemies. It is no wonder the mob followed through,” said Professor Ryan Goodman, Just Security’s editor-in-chief.Goodman also highlighted Trump’s backing of his supporters in Texas, who just days before November’s presidential election surrounded a Joe Biden campaign bus and nearly forced it off the road.“I LOVE TEXAS,” Trump tweeted at the time, alongside a video of the incident. “These patriots did nothing wrong,” he added when the FBI started an investigation. Just Security also highlighted a string of “Stop the Steal” tweets made by Trump ahead of the US Capitol invasion, in reference to baseless rumors the election was somehow fixed in Biden’s favorThese are real examples of inciting violence. But the same people who are now accusing LeBron of inciting violence were silent at best during the events leading up to the Capitol invasion. An invasion after which a police officer died. Interesting that we didn’t hear much from the Blue Lives Matter crowd condemning Trump after that either. The bottom line is this: the outrage from the right toward LeBron’s tweet is disingenuous, baseless and hypocritical. Conservatives fear him because of his influence. They want to bully LeBron into silence so that they can dominate the narrative with their Back The Blue campaign, no matter what rhetoric. If he wasn’t such a threat, they wouldn’t pay him half as much attention. More

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      Lady Gaga attacks Trump's 'grab' remarks at Joe Biden rally

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      Lady Gaga gave an impassioned message of support for Joe Biden as America heads to the polls, making reference to Donald Trump’s history of crude sexual remarks and alleged sexual assaults.“Vote like your life depends on it, or vote like your children’s lives depends on it, because they do,” she told a rally in Pennsylvania. “Everybody, no matter how you identify, now is your chance to vote against Donald Trump, a man who believes his fame gives him the right to grab one of your daughters, or sisters, or mothers or wives by any part of their bodies … Vote for Joe. He’s a good person.”Her words referred to Trump’s infamous 2005 boast that “when you’re a star, they let you do it … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything”.Trump referred to Gaga at his own Pennsylvania rally, saying she “is not too good … I could tell you stories about Lady Gaga. I know a lot of stories.”On Sunday, Trump’s communications director Tim Murtagh tweeted: “Nothing exposes Biden’s disdain for the forgotten working men & women of PA like campaigning with anti-fracking activist Lady Gaga. This desperate effort to drum up enthusiasm is actually a sharp stick in the eye for 600,000 Pennsylvanians who work in the fracking industry.” Gaga responded: “I’m glad to be living rent free in your head.”At his Pennsylvania rally, Trump also criticised Jon Boni Jovi, Jay-Z, and LeBron James, who won the 2020 NBA championship with the LA Lakers in October. “I didn’t watch one shot, I got bored, back forth, back forth,” Trump said. “You know why? When they don’t respect our country, when they don’t respect our flag, nobody wants to watch”, a reference to the kneeling protests James and his team made on their return in July.James later endorsed Biden on Instagram, saying: “We need everything to change and it all starts tomorrow.” More

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      Athletes and the US election: How a generation of stars got in the game

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      They put in the long hours, did all the heavy lifting, prepared like never before – and all in anticipation for the biggest contest of the year: The one on 3 November.
      That day, election day, is now less than a week away. Already, votes have been cast by a record 66 million-plus Americans, an astonishing draw that once seemed unfathomable during a pandemic. And while much of that sense of urgency stems from the 2020 presidential race – truly a life or death vote, in light of the ravages of Covid – the sense of purpose was shaped in no small part by the activism in sports. “Because of everything that’s going on, people are finally starting to listen to us,” LeBron James told the New York Times in June. “We feel like we’re finally getting a foot in the door.”
      The big push started in March, with people the world over breaking quarantine to protest systemic anti-black racism in the wake of George Floyd’s unlawful killing in May at the hands of Minneapolis police. Meanwhile, scores of idle dribblers wondered if an on-court comeback might steal focus. In the end they did return but with assurances that social justice would become more centered in the overall spectacle. Hence how Black Lives Matter landed on NBA and WNBA courts and jerseys, and voter registration became the focus of recurring league PSAs. And when protests erupted again after Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake within an inch of his life three months later and the Milwaukee Bucks walked off of a play-off game and triggered a two-day sports blackout, one of the biggest concessions they won from their NBA partners was a pledge to convert some 20-odd league arenas into polling places in response to Donald Trump’s attempts to suppress and undermine in-person and mail-in balloting.
      Last Saturday, on the first ever day of early voting in New York state, thousands of masked Manhattanites wrapped the streets and avenues around Madison Square Garden, with some waiting as long as five hours to cast their ballots. The scene was similar, if a bit more brisk, at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento and at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. That a team owned by someone as famously apolitical as Michael Jordan could have a hand in this historic election turnout is a welcome twist.
      The kicker: he’s also written $2.5m-worth of checks to fight black voter suppression as part of a 10-year, $100m pledge to beat systemic racism – the clearest indicator yet of his evolution away from the neutral pitchman who hawked so many sneakers and colors of Gatorade in the ‘90s. “We understand that one of the main ways we can change systemic racism is at the polls,” he said in a July statement. “We know it will take time for us to create the change we want to see, but we are working quickly to take action for the Black Community’s voice to be heard.”
      Still, you wonder if Jordan would’ve ever had such courage in his newfound convictions if James wasn’t giving as good as he gets from his critic-in-chief in the Oval Office in between weighing in on social justice issues in real time. As he was leading the Lakers to an NBA championship, he was huddling with a group of prominent athletes and entertainers to launch More Than a Vote, an organization aimed at informing, protecting and turning out Black voters.
      When it comes to more acute impact, however, James and co have nothing on his female counterparts. When one of its owners, Kelly Loeffler, the junior Republican US senator from Georgia who owns half of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, took to the airwaves this past summer to disparage Black Lives Matter and the league for dedicating its season to the movement, players from her team and the opposing Phoenix Mercury took to the court before a nationally televised game in black T-shirts endorsing her Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock, leader of the Atlanta Baptist church where Martin Luther King once pastored.
      The shirts quickly came into vogue league-wide. Within two days, Warnock’s campaign announced a $183,000 fundraising windfall – which helped launch a TV ad onslaught. In the last month Warnock has gone from polling slightly ahead of Loeffler at 31% to above 50% – which is right where he would have to be to avoid a January runoff. “It was one of many turning points in the campaign,” Warnock told USA Today Sports of the WNBA players’ endorsement. Nneka Ogwumike, the Los Angeles Sparks MVP forward and Player Association president, called it something else: “My favorite moment of the summer.”
      That a group of athletes could be as persuasive in the political arena as they are commercially shouldn’t come as a surprise. Researchers at Wake Forest University launched a study into this very phenomenon this year and have already found the impact on political views of local and national matters to be significant, citing Colin Kaepernick’s hard-fought success in moving the needle on police reform as one example. “They’re influencing people to watch them,” said Betina Wilkinson, an associate professor of political science on the study. “They’re influencing people to buy the products that they’re selling, but then also now they have the ability to influence people’s views on issues regarding race such as immigration and criminal justice reform.” Meanwhile, the majority of respondents to a recent Politico study said Kaepernick’s activism inspired them to vote in a local, state or national election – and that’s with Kaepernick saying he didn’t vote in the 2016 election.
      Gone are the days when an athlete’s impact on the democratic process was mostly incidental. You remember those “studies”: the gubernatorial race that was actually decided by a college football upset. The presidential election that was foretold by the “Redskin Rule”. Or the Super Bowl result. Or the Bears-Colts game.
      These days, you’d be hard-pressed to turn on an NFL game without the Texans’ Deshaun Watson, Saints’ Cam Jordan and Seahawks coach Pete Carroll belittling the fact that only 60% of Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election as they encourage you to register to vote. For a league that oozes conservatism and genuflected to the president, whose demented causes aren’t helped by high voter turnout, this may as well be the equivalent of dumping tea into Boston Harbor. Even college football plays against type. Just last month, the NCAA’s Division I Council called for a blackout on practices and games on election day. All the while, athletic departments from Cal State LA to Yale have held registration drives with the goal of signing up all of their eligible athletes.
      Clearly, we are now well past the era of athletes voting their bank accounts. Turns out, the money only goes so far. It didn’t spare them the inconvenience of being black or gay in America or otherwise labeled as different. So it figures that when their backs were against the wall, they banded closer together and found a collective resolve. That their impact can already be felt this far away from election day goes to show the hold athletes had on us all along. What’s more, that handle can only get tighter with more practice and progress in the years ahead. More