Is Oprah Winfrey the secret sauce Kamala Harris needs to win?
The Harris campaign sure hopes so, and campaign advisers say there are “surprises” in store during a livestream interview with the iconic talk show host Wednesday night.
A few hundred studio guests will be watching in-person in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan. A couple hundred thousand others are expected to be tuning in on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitch. The event is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
The event, co-hosted by Win With Black Women, comes as Harris and Donald Trump are deadlocked in a high-stakes, suspenseful race that could break either way as both candidates target every possible demographic.
The campaign has sky-high hopes for the livestream, suggesting the impact could mirror that of Oprah’s talk show. Harris’ team is positioning it as part of her diverse media engagement strategy, even as she catches flack about dodging reporters.
It’s unclear how much influence celebrities actually have over election results. But if there’s any name that could move voters, it may just be Oprah. She delivered a million votes for Barack Obama in 2008 after her endorsement of the first Black president. The Harris campaign hopes history repeats itself.
“From #WinWithBlackWomen to #CatLadies- and #ComicsforKamala and everyone in between, people from around the country will join in a heart-to-heart conversation with Oprah and Vice President Harris on some of the biggest topics facing American families,” according to an event announcement.
Sixteen years later, in a more fragmented media environment, it’s unclear how much an Oprah appearance translates to votes. The mononymous megastar billionaire has mostly avoided politics for the past decade-and-a-half.
Now, she’s back in the game trying to deliver a victory for Harris. Oprah endorsed Harris in August and spoke at last month’s Democratic National Convention.
