ABSTRACT
“Presidential power,” once said presidential scholar Richard Neustadt, “is the power to persuade.” Neustadt’s conception of power is the ability to make someone do something he or she would not have done otherwise. This chapter contemplates the power that celebrities have through an assessment of whether people are more likely to vote for celebrities running for office than traditional politicians, all else equal. I accomplish this through two survey experiments. A paired comparison experiment presents respondents with a series of randomized candidate choices and asks them which hypothetical candidate they would vote for in a presidential election. A priming experiment is also conducted in which respondents are shown pictures of celebrities and politicians performing activities that evoke either traditional partisan politics (i.e., speaking behind a podium) or entertainment and fame (i.e., signing autographs or taking pictures with fans and supporters) before answering how likely they would be to vote for these hypothetical candidates for United States Senate. Interesting findings include that Republicans are not necessarily less likely to choose celebrity candidates than Democrats, that Democratic politicians appear to benefit slightly from appearing in contexts that are evocative of entertainment and fame, that the electability of several celebrities within both the Democratic and Republican party is comparable to that of leading traditional politicians, and that Republican female celebrity candidates are penalized significantly among both Republicans and Independents.
