As Donald Trump’s lewd comments about women have been released, Hillary Clinton has secured the endorsements of many female celebrities.  In a world consumed with social media, could Clinton’s celebrity surrogates be the difference in the millennial vote?

The video of Trump’s vigorously degrading comments to Billy Bush of Access Hollywood has taken the internet by storm. Many politicians and celebrities are stepping forward to retract their prior endorsements of Trump.  Hillary Clinton, pictured above with Britney Spears, has an overwhelming base of support coming from Hollywood. With the use of social media in campaigns at an all time high, the use of celebrity surrogates could gain Clinton the support that she needs from the millennials.

If Clinton is able to use the celebrities’ social media outreach, Clinton could capitalize on their followers and huge fan bases.

With the current trends of equality for women gaining attention with the younger vote, Trump’s comments made in 2005 will be a significant blow to his support from millennial females. Clinton has secured the endorsements of celebrities including Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Elizabeth Banks, Drew Barrymore, Mary J. Blige, Connie Britton, Ellen DeGeneres, Lena Dunham, along with many others. Barrymore said of Clinton, “Hillary Clinton is going to be the ultimate girlboss as our next president“.

Clinton can use these women with such a massive follower base to voice a message of disdain and disgust with Trump more harshly than she can as his opposition. While Clinton can and will react to Trump’s comments by messaging on her support of women, she cannot be too harsh while remaining presidential. These famous women are hugely significant in elections. For example, Donald Trump a mere few years back was just a celebrity entrepreneur himself.

Looking forward as the election moves closer and closer, Americans can expect Hillary’s celebrity surrogates to reach out to their fan bases to amp up their support. While celebrity surrogates lack the political background and credibility of a political surrogate, Clinton may be able to beat Trump at this own game. Trump’s celebrity status gave him a huge advantage in the Republican primary in terms of name recognition and media attention. His outsider approach to politics has been lucrative for him so far but he’s losing steam as Clinton displays a huge advantage of experience. If she can combine her experience and knowledge with the outsider approach of her celebrity surrogates, she may have the grounds to capture the millennial vote.

 

With the election for President a little over a month away, Secretary Clinton has got a lot to prove to court the millennial vote that came so easily to President Barack Obama and to her opposition in the primary, Bernie Sanders.  During the democratic primary contest, Sanders “captured over seven-in-10 Millennial voters against Clinton” says Ben Tulchin, a pollster for Bernie Sanders.

The real question for Secretary Clinton will not be whether or not she will be able to defeat Donald Trump’s appeal with millennials but whether or not she will be able to defeat Bernie Sanders?

Earlier this week, the Clinton leaks continue. The leak includes an audio clip of Secretary Clinton at a fundraising referring the supporters of Senator Sanders as “living in their parents’ basement” and being idealists who are “new to politics completely”.

It was not too much earlier this election cycle that Secretary Clinton nicknamed Trump supporters a “’basket of deplorables”.

Perhaps Secretary Clinton feels so secure for the November election that she is not concerned with the comments made about Trump supporters. But, the detachment from Bernie Sanders supporters could come back to bite her.

It seems that in recent weeks, Libertarian candidate, Governor Gary Johnson, has started sweeping Bernie Sanders’ millennial voters into his camp.  While Governor Johnson may not be a realistic adversary in the race to be President, he could steal enough of the millennials to take the victory away from Secretary Clinton and had the office to Trump.

A poll done in August shows Governor Johnson leading Trump and Secretary Clinton with registered voters under 25. The same poll shows that with voters 18-24, Governor Johnson polls at 12% unfavorably and Secretary Clinton polls at 65% unfavorably.

Secretary Clinton has less than 40 days to attract the millennial vote and convince Bernie supporters to come her way instead of to Governor Johnson.