There was a time when politics and show biz were absolutely unrelated apart from the usual social interactions that politicians and celebs used to have. Today however, the line between politics and celebrity is often crossed and ever since Ronald Reagan became president, the number of celebrities taking interest in politics and a political career has grown immensely. While many politicians today are no less than celebrities themselves, celebrities are busy endorsing politicians, political parties and ideologies. Even though it depends totally on a celebrity’s discretion regarding which party or politician he or she wants to support, celebrity support can majorly tilt the common population towards a certain direction.

Celebrity endorsement and support of politicians not only manages to increase a politician’s media exposure or pull crowds to rallies, it often leads to a number of monetary gains and campaign support as well. In most cases, celebrity endorsement of politicians helps in getting loads of exposure for any politician or his or her ideology. While some celebrities carry out fund raisers for their favorite candidates, others are known to make speeches traveling with their favorite politicians on their election rallies.

An example in case is talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, who has pooled all kinds of support for her favorite presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Oprah has not only provided finding for Obama’s campaign, she has accompanied the presidential hopeful and his wife on campaign tours, made speeches supporting him and is busy providing all kinds of help to him. While this does not ensure Obama a presidential victory, it definitely ensures large audiences and support for him wherever he goes, for after all , he is being supported by television’s most popular star.

Celebrity support in motivating people to vote for a certain candidate cannot be questioned because it is a given that having a celebrity will influence the number of votes you get. However, the number of votes that you manage to get will depend not only on getting a celebrity, but also on getting the right kind of celeb for support. And in the end, your political motives, goals, agenda and cause are going to matter just as much as the celebrity endorsement.

This has been proven by the last elections in 2006, when celebrity endorsements worked for some political candidates while failing for others. Most people who got celeb support in these elections won but at the same time, some did not. However, one thing that really mattered was the popularity of the celebrity who supported a certain political candidate. Some of the famous celebs who were associated with politicians in these elections were Paul Newman, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, Michael J. Fox, Robert DeNiro, Don King, Russell Simmons and Tony Bennett. Coming to the most successful celeb endorsements in those elections; then Michael J. Fox, who recorded TV ads for certain politicians favoring stem cell research managed to make a huge difference, what with all five of his political candidates winning.