Pop star primaries: the musicians who could weigh in on 2020

Speaking out on politics has become a basic job requirement for the modern pop star. They’ve gotten so involved that some of them actually endorsed candidates in a midterm year, although most of those endorsements didn’t do any good (see below).

Regardless, pop star support is something all candidates seem to appreciate, even if they act like they don’t. During the 2016 race, then-candidate Donald Trump boasted he didn’t need J.Lo, Jay-Z, or Beyoncé to get people to his rallies, but he’s since cultivated relationships with his own musician supporters.

The upcoming campaign could see pop activism reaching new heights. Imagine Beyoncé and Taylor Swift dropping primary endorsements right before Super Tuesday, when their home states of Texas and Tennessee vote, or Kanye West serving as the opening act at a Trump rally.

Here’s a preview of what we could see from some of today’s most vocal musicians in 2020:

Cardi B

Cardi B wins over conservative fans every time she sounds off on tax policy or the IRS (“Uncle Sam, I want to know what you’re doing with my f--king tax money,” she said during her iconic March 2018 Instagram rant, calling for transparency in how tax dollars are spent), but she leans decidedly left. Cardi said she hates Trump and posted another Instagram video against his shutdown in January. She knows her presidential trivia, loves FDR, and is Team Bernie, but she’s still keeping her options open. She mentioned to Variety she was impressed with Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). Cardi is working on the follow-up to her Grammy-winning Invasion of Privacy, which could keep her on the charts and awards ceremony circuit throughout the 2020 campaign.

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift never does anything halfway, and while she stayed out of politics the majority of her career, she’s now sharing her views like she’s making up for lost time.

In 2018 Swift donated to March For Our Lives, endorsed her first-ever candidates, and turned her Instagram account into a get-out-the-vote channel. She marked the start of Pride asking Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in a letter to back the Equality Act, and even got a presidential candidate, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), to thank her for her leadership in backing the legislation.

As she prepares for the release of Lover, Swift told German news agency DPA her forthcoming album will have “political undertones.” In second single “You Need To Calm Down,” Swift sings “shade never made anybody less gay” and spells out “glad” like “GLAAD,” the acronym for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, in the lyric video.

Swift’s endorsements last year came the day after she closed out the U.S. leg of her Reputation Tour in Arlington, Texas, perfect timing to avoid any potential backlash. Should she embark on another tour in support of her next album, we could see just what kind of reaction she gets.

Lady Gaga

Though Lady Gaga is unapologetic in her beliefs — her political resume includes advocating against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, backing marriage equality and Black Lives Matter, and campaigning for Hillary Clinton — she also strives to be a uniter. When she performed at the first Super Bowl halftime show after Trump’s election, she opened with a medley of “God Bless America” and “This Land Is Your Land,” and later that year teamed up with former presidents for One America Appeal, the relief initiative for victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. 

Gaga has Enigma residency dates scheduled in Las Vegas through May 2020. So perhaps candidates will be kissing her ring during campaign stops on the Strip ahead of Nevada’s caucus in February, a la Clinton and Britney Spears in 2016. She also partnered with former Vice President Biden for the It’s On Us initiative in 2017 against sexual assault.

Beyoncé

Beyoncé Beyoncéd her Beto O’Rourke endorsement last November like she Beyoncéd Beyoncé and Homecoming, dropping three successive Instagram posts of her wearing a “Beto for Senate” baseball hat hours before polls closed. Unlike Swift, who embeds Easter eggs throughout an album cycle, Beyoncé drops entire completed projects without warning, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she did the same thing for a 2020 endorsement.

Beyoncé headlined a rally for Hillary Clinton in Ohio with husband Jay-Z in 2016, sent her mailing list a call to vote last year, and registered fans to vote on the OTR II Tour. She is, of course, first and foremost a Michelle Obama stan, and since the former FLOTUS proved she can fill sports and concert venues on her “Becoming” Tour, perhaps the two could co-headline a GOTV rally or two?

Beyoncé’s brand of feminism feels especially fitting for the moment. Her line in “Sorry” on Homecoming asking the ladies if they “had enough of the bullsh-t” was like a call to arms. If girls are truly going to run the world, getting in formation includes running for office and voting.

Kanye West

2020, you’ll remember, was the year Kanye West said he was going to run for president. After Trump won, though, he pushed it back four years, tweeting “2024” after meeting the president-elect at Trump Tower in December 2016 and getting a signed Trump Person of the Year Time magazine.

West has mostly stayed out of politics since October 2018 when he tweeted he had “been used to spread messages I don’t believe in.” This was about three weeks after his Oval Office visit when Candace Owens claimed West designed her “Blexit” merch. West denied any involvement in the campaign and tweeted that he was going to focus on creativity and distance himself from politics. Despite his creative focus, as of press time we still don’t have Yandhi, West’s long-delayed ninth studio album (although a new song titled “Brothers” was featured in a trailer for BET’s “Tales”), and he has still brought up the hat a few times. 

On New Year’s Day 2019 West vowed “from now on I’m performing with my mutherf--king hat on,” but social media photos from his Sunday Service performances that began in January are MAGA hat-free, as was his special Coachella Sunday Service. Who knows whether or not we’ll get a Ye KAG hat selfie in 2020, but I imagine if Kris Jenner has anything to do with it, the only member of her family involved with the Trump administration going forward will be Kim Kardashian West, and on a strictly criminal-justice-reform-only basis.

Ariana Grande

In her “Monopoly” music video, Ariana Grande shoos away the “haters,” “negativity” and “Trump” in the style of dancer and motivational Instagram video creator Donté Colley. It suggests Trump fatigue can be dismissed with the power of positive thinking and by sticking to the hustle. But also voting. Grande partnered with the group HeadCount to register fans to vote on her Sweetener World Tour. U.S. dates for the tour are scheduled through December, and she donated the proceeds from her June 8 show in Atlanta to Planned Parenthood.

Grande’s Sweetener/Thank U, Next era has been a triumph over trauma and heartbreak. In less than a year she performed at two benefits and a rally for victims of extremism and gun violence — One Love Manchester, Concert For Charlottesville, and March For Our Lives — and she came back with forward-looking songs like “No Tears Left To Cry.” If anyone can make shooing away the 45th president like he’s a temporary bad attitude look easy, it’s Ari.

Grande’s shown love for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the past and she’s keeping an eye on 2020. She met Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) backstage at “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and has reposted a Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) photo to her Instagram story.

Kid Rock

Kid Rock’s U.S. Senate run was a joke, but he’s still serious about politics. He ended up donating the $122,000 made from the sale of “Kid Rock for Senate” merch to CRNC Action, a college Republican group that helped register fans to vote at his concerts, and he endorsed the Republican in his home state’s Senate race.

Michigan is among the handful of swing states crucial to Trump’s reelection, so a hometown hero could be a helpful surrogate. In June 2018 Kid Rock said that before he revealed his political ambitions weren’t for real, he was hearing from the White House “weekly,” and he’s visited with Trump on multiple occasions. Kid Rock made an Oval Office visit before Kanye did (during his 2017 trip with Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent), and he dropped by the White House again last year for the Music Modernization bill signing ceremony. In March he hung with Trump on the golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Katy Perry

The lead single to Katy Perry’s last album Witness was “Chained to the Rhythm,” a “purposeful pop” song about living in a bubble and dancing to distortion that has taken on new meaning post-Cambridge Analytica. Her latest track, “Never Really Over,” is a different vibe, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have a lot to say this campaign. 

Perry has been an eager surrogate for the past two Democratic nominees, and she always brings out her campiest outfits for the campaign trail. There was her skin-tight “Forward” and ballot dresses for Obama in 2012 and the American flag and “I’m With Madam President” capes for Clinton in 2016. Any 2020 ensembles would have to be just as ostentatious. I’m hopeful there will be a Smithsonian exhibit on them one day.