Vice President Kamala Harris has received endorsements from several billionaires and big name celebrities since becoming the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election.
Billionaire celebrity Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks, Shark Tank) and Silicon Valley stars Sheryl Sandberg and Reed Hastings have joined Hollywood stars including Jessica Alba, George Clooney and Spike Lee in stepping up to endorse Harris.
Yet as Harris and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, address the 2024 Democratic Convention this week in Chicago — former President Barack Obama‘s hometown — there are still a few notable names expected to soon join the list of Harris’s public supporters, including the billionaire Chicago native Oprah Winfrey.
While lively arguments persist about whether celebrity endorsements really move the election needle, a 2013 study by Northwestern University and the University of Maryland determined that Winfrey’s Obama endorsement may have added “approximately a million additional votes” to his 2008 tally. (Part of Winfrey’s impact — and the reason the votes are characterized as “additional” — was in getting unlikely voters to the polls.)
Having stepped out of the spotlight and no longer appearing on TV daily, Winfrey’s endorsement may not be as significant today, but her fundraising prowess and cultural influence remain strong.
[Above: Winfrey, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, on the campaign trail in December 2007, photo: vargas2040, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
In 2006, Winfrey — already ensconced among the world’s most powerful women — publicly endorsed Obama before the Illinois Senator announced that he was running. She held two hugely successful fundraisers for him: one at her California home in fall of 2007 and the other at her home in Chicago in October 2008.
So glad to see my friend @Oprah at @essencefest as she continues to inspire generations with her voice, authenticity, and creativity. pic.twitter.com/Z1i9YxWSiM
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 2, 2023
In July 2023, with the photo above of Winfrey and VP Harris holding hands, Harris congratulated her friend who won an honor at the Essence Festival. Harris wrote of Winfrey: “she continues to inspire generations with her voice, authenticity, and creativity.”
When Harris was elected Vice President in 2020, Winfrey said of Harris: “I think what she means for women of the world is so extraordinary. For women here in the United States, we can’t even measure it.”
Winfrey also revealed that she got emotional that day and wasn’t the only one. Winfrey said: “I got a text from Tyler Perry saying, ‘I know you somewhere in the corner crying, as I am.’”
Winfrey has known for Harris for years. As seen in the 2005 clip above, Winfrey refers to Harris as a “superstar prosecutor” with “a 90 percent conviction rate.”