It's been a month since Kamala Harris announced her presidential campaign, following Joe Biden's resignation. Before the news broke, Harris had been the subject of many memes – largely down to her viral ‘coconut tree’ speech – but she's recently received a wave of celebrity endorsements.
Just take the Democratic Convention, which has seen a packed celebrity line-up including Oprah Winfrey, Kenan Thompson, Stevie Wonder and Mindy Kaling. Mindy had the crowd cheering for Kamala Harris, Stevie Wonder urged voters to choose 'joy over anger' and Oprah used her speech to stand up for 'childless cat ladies' - a reference to a misogynistic comment made by JD Vance in a resurfaced interview from 2021.
Many more celebrities have shown their support for Harris since Biden quit the presidential race in July this year. From Charli XCX to Megan Thee Stallion, here's a round up of the celebrity endorsements so far...
Charli XCX
As with most trends this summer, this can largely be traced back to Charli XCX, whose hit album created a 'brat summer’ phenomenon. Social media users had been joking about whether a Kamala Harris presidency would be, as posited on X by New Yorker writer Naomi Fry, ‘brat coded’. As soon as the Biden news was made public, social media went into overdrive with this strange crossover. Fan edits put ‘brat green’ tinged footage of Harris over Charli’s song ‘Von Dutch’, while photos showed a group of men in bright green t-shirts with ‘Kamala’ written in the brat font on the queer-friendly tourist town Fire Island.
Charli got involved following the news, posting on X (formerly Twitter), ‘Kamala IS brat’. It’s hard to gauge the sincerity of Charli’s tweet – given she’s British, her endorsement isn’t one of the more important ones, anyway. But the post has been seen more than 46 million times, and even prompted Harris’s campaign team to change their header image to the brat font, while US political commentators debated what a ‘brat summer’ even means.
It shows that the Harris 2024 campaign is all about capturing the cultural zeitgeist, and that means the pop girls are going to be involved. It took less than 48 hours for Kamala HQ, Harris’s campaign team, to make a TikTok video soundtracked by Chappell Roan’s ‘Femininomenon’ (Chappell is yet to comment on Harris’s candidacy).
Beyoncé
After the Charli hype, another apparent endorsement rolled in from one of the world’s biggest pop stars. Yes, it seems Beyoncé is firmly in the Harris camp. The politician walked out to the singer’s 2016 track ‘Freedom’ during her first official visit to campaign headquarters on Monday 22 July. Beyoncé has not officially endorsed Harris, but CNN reports that the musician, who is known for being strict about her music clearance, quickly approved the request from the camp. The use of artists' music by presidential candidates has been a much-discussed issue since 2016, as a number of acts including Adele, Bruce Springsteen and Phil Collins publicly objected to Trump using their songs at campaign rallies.
Megan Thee Stallion
Back in July, Megan joined Kamala at a rally in Atlanta, where she did a ten-minute performance. Megan said 'I’m so happy to be here, Atlanta. We about to make history with the first female president – the first Black female president. Let’s get this done, Hotties. Hotties for Harris.'
She has also previously featured in Harris on her social media platforms, and encouraged women to vote for her.
Katy Perry
One endorsement likely to carry less weight than Charli or Beyoncé comes from Katy Perry, who’s currently being talked about for less favourable reasons. At the height of her fame, the ‘California Girls’ singer might have been a valuable supporter – even if her 2022 vote for Republican Rick Caruso earned her a lot of criticism. Still, given the backlash to her recent ‘comeback’ single ‘Woman’s World’, which reached just number 47 in the UK charts in its first week, Katy’s word carries less weight these days. It doesn’t help that she used the song to promote Harris.
John Legend
John Legend isn't one to shy away from taking a political stand, and most recently he's endorsed the Harris campaign. In an appearance on CBS Mornings, Legend spoke about his reasons for supporting Kamala.
'I live in California, so I’ve gotten to watch her run for election multiple times,' he said of Harris, who was the Attorney General of California and a Senator from the state before becoming Biden's VP. 'And seen how smart and charismatic and empathetic and how ready she is for this, she’s prepared herself for this role. She is eminently qualified to be president. And then she also has the right character traits I think to be a great president, which means she cares about people’s lives, wants government to work for people and improve their lives.'
Legend's political engagement is largely thanks to his upbringing. He grew up in a blue-collar town in Ohio with what he described as a United Auto Workers family. He also praised the Democrats in a recent social media post, writing 'I'm so ready to work to help unite the pro-democracy coalition to reject Trump's authoritarian, oppressive Project 2025 and elect Kamala Harris as our President.'
Barack and Michelle Obama
Being a former first family themselves, the Obamas have always firm supporters of the Democrats. This week, the Obamas reaffirmed their support for Kamala Harris in a speech at the DNC, urging voters to back her in the upcoming election.
'In this new economy, we need a president who actually cares about the millions of people all across this country who wake up every day to do the essential, often thankless work to care for our sick and clean our streets and deliver our packages – and stand up for their right to bargain for better wages and working conditions,' Barack Obama said. 'Kamala will be that president.'
Ariana Grande
Ariana has largely stayed quiet when it comes to politics. However, Ariana did share Biden's post endorsing Harris to her Instagram story, which read: 'Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.'
Jamie Lee Curtis
The Knives Out star is one of the many actors who has publicly shared their support for Harris on social media. 'I support wholeheartedly @joebiden and his decision to step down and to endorse unreservedly @kamalaharris. SHE IS TRUSTED AND TESTED and she is a fierce advocate for women’s rights and people of colour and her message is one of HOPE and UNITY for America [at a] time of great national divide,' she wrote in an endorsement posted to X in July.
Other celebrity endorsements
Plenty more celebrities have thrown their support behind Harris, including Barbra Streisand, Cardi B and Lil Nas X. From the acting world, Viola Davis, Robert de Niro, Kerry Washington, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Mark Ruffalo and Sheryl Lee Ralph have endorsed her.
George Clooney, a long-time Democrat, broke rank earlier this year when he became one of the first celebrities to publicly call on Biden to drop out of the presidential race. 'President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again,' he told CNN, following the sitting president’s announcement. 'We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.'
Isobel Lewis is a news and entertainment writer at Grazia, where she covers TV, entertainment and celebrity. She previously worked as a culture reporter for The Independent, and has written for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and The i.