A new poll from Morning Consult explored which endorsements were the most positive and most negative for politicians, and guess who was exposed as the most toxic? "Hollywood couple Kanye West (-35 points) and Kim Kardashian (-42 points) were the most likely to turn voters off." Whoops. Some strategist could have told Hillary Clinton before she took an endorsement selfie with them!
Even among Democrats, Kim Kardashian is damaging. Her endorsement ranked as the eighth most damaging, right after Steve Bannon and right ahead of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell!
The national media were nowhere to be found on this poll. But Addy Baird at the liberal-Democrat website Think Progress was baffled and depressed that this "staunch defender of progressive causes" would be so negatively received on the Left:
The maligning of Kardashian West is baffling. Placing her among Bannon and McConnell as a political enemy for Democrats and others on the left is nonsensical. That she wields such a negative force on voters in the U.S. is depressing.
For years, Kardashian West has used her Twitter account to call for stronger gun laws in the U.S., tweeting about the need for better background checks and advocating for Congress to take action....Kardashian West has expressed solidarity with DREAMers, spoken out about the injustice of banning transgender soldiers from serving, and Islamophobia.
Baird gets out some serious pom-poms: "Everything Kardashian West touches turns to gold." The TV show, her smartphone app with beauty secrets, her line of fragrances. But all of that is based on her being...notorious.
The distaste for Kardashian West’s politics, even among those who agree with her, certainly is due to how Kardashian West rose to fame. Yes, her father was a member of O.J. Simpson’s defense team. Yes, she made a sex tape and then teamed up with her family to spin the buzz into a reality show. But to write off Kardashian West because of ties to Simpson and a sex tape and a reality show is reductive, particularly for Democrats, who claim to be the party of social acceptance...
And isn’t one of the most vital aspects of American democracy is that anyone can engage, no matter their background or experience? Shouldn’t we celebrate successful American businesswomen engaging with the political system?
The distaste for Kardashian West feels particularly ridiculous when you consider the state of American politics, with the former host of The Apprentice in the White House and Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon mounting a formidable challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York.
The Morning Consult chart also showed it might have been less damaging for Hillary to be endorsed by ....Jerry Falwell Jr.?
