As trust in institutions craters, people may look to unconventional candidates for leadership. “This is happening all around the world,” says Eunji Kim, a Vanderbilt University political-science professor. Ukraine’s president is currently a man who played Ukraine’s president on TV. A boxer and an actor—two different guys—are currently running for president of the Philippines.
In crowded primary fields, or in nonpartisan elections, fame can be especially helpful. Name recognition—the main advantage celebrity buys you—matters primarily in “low information” elections. That’s because in any multiparty election, the most important factor influencing whether someone will vote for a candidate is their party affiliation. Republicans vote for Republicans; Democrats vote for Democrats. But in elections that don’t have a partisan divide—like most primaries and some mayoral races—the candidate who is more well-known has an edge.
“What do people know about the typical person running for office? Actually very little,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania. When they have little information about candidates, people gravitate toward familiar names—even if those names are simply ethnically similar to their own. “If you’re Irish, and the name is Murphy on the ballot, and the other name is, say, Anderson, all things being equal, you’re gonna vote for Murphy,” Jamieson says. Even having a common name can help you win down-ballot races, says Jeffrey Glas, a political-science professor at the University of Georgia. A voter might get to the polling place and think, “I knew a Joe Davis before—yeah, he was a good guy.” A name like “Taylor Swift” would presumably be even better.
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