LOL! Meghan Markle Urged Not to Endorse Kamala

This might be the funniest story since Kamala Harris took over as the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee. According to a report from Newsweek, Meghan Markle, who was reportedly an actress once, is being urged not to endorse Kamala Harris because it "would have a negative impact on both women."

The report explains that Harris already has "the support of some major figures Meghan respects" and that Markle has "spoken in glowing terms about the vice president," so it would be natural for her to join the ranks of celebrities who predictably endorse Democrats for president. Except it's actually not that simple.

Edward Coram James, PR expert and chief executive of digital marketing agency Go Up, told Newsweek a Meghan endorsement would play badly for both women.
"I don't think so for her and I don't think for Kamala Harris," he said.
"I think it would have a negative impact on Kamala," Coram James said. "The people that like Meghan Markle will probably already like and be voting for Kamala Harris.
"There's only a small pool of people who like Meghan Markle who tend to be very progressive-leaning young people anyway.
"Those people had a problem with Biden. On first blush, it doesn't look like that problem is being carried over to Kamala, so it looks like unless Kamala makes some sort of misstep it looks like they've got those people in the bag."
Harris also has other high profile endorsements rolling in and appears to have already alighted on a major cultural reference point—Charlie XCX and her album Brat.

"Actually Charlie XCX and that kind of person have already gone out and endorsed Kamala," Coram James told Newsweek. "And loads of other people will, so that demographic that Meghan Markle could have spoken to are already being spoken to by the likes of Charlie XCX. So the only thing Meghan could bring to the table is negative because there's a group of people who dislike her so much that her going and endorsing Kamala will have a bigger effect on dissuading people who dislike Meghan than persuading people who like Meghan."

Meghan's capacity to deliver a swing away from a candidate she endorsed was demonstrated in recent polling for Newsweek conducted by Redfield & Wilton before Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race.
Around 20 percent of U.S. adults said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Meghan and Harry compared with 21 percent who would be more likely, while 48 percent said it would make no difference.

Personally, it's hard to wrap my head around the idea that people actually care about celebrity endorsements, yet here we are. According to the article, in 2020, Markle encouraged Americans to back Michelle Obama's When All Women Vote initiative, which targeted a demographic more likely to vote against Donald Trump. This prompted a media backlash, as her involvement was seen as potentially damaging to the monarchy's impartial reputation.

"From a reputation point of view she needs to stay out of politics for a while now," Coram James said. "There were a couple of polls earlier this year that suggest, in the U.S. at least, her reputation has recovered slightly. That syncs in almost perfectly with her stopping doing controversial stuff. I know on one level the royal family isn't blissful at all but one of the difficulties she experienced is that a lot of it seemed a little bit political."

He added, "From an optics point of view, it seemed like someone with very progressive politics trying to force the royal family to also follow those progressive politics and getting upset when they didn't. That was part of the reason she was so unpopular. That and seeming to wage war against her husband's family also isn't ideal either."

Coram James points out that Markle's past efforts to delve into the political sphere have hurt her popularity.

And with that, I hope I never have to write another article about her again.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Meghan Markle's last name. We apologize to our readers for this error.