Nobody cares about your CEO's endorsement anyway: Ross Kerber
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. This column is part of the weekly Reuters Sustainable Finance newsletter, which you can sign up for here
By Ross Kerber
Oct 30 (Reuters) -Few top business leaders have taken official stands on next week's U.S. elections, causing heartburn especially among Democrats who have hoped for more explicit backing.
On Monday, for instance, Amazon.com AMZN.O founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos defended the decision of the newspaper not to endorse a presidential candidate, leading some 200,000 readers to cancel their subscriptions.
Of course plenty of current and former CEOs have lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, probably more than Republican former President Donald Trump can boast. Still, Trump does have in his corner Tesla TSLA.O CEO Elon Musk, who comes with his own social media platform X.com.
So far the largest company CEOs and trade groups have stayed silent or neutral. Possible explanations include that many fear Trump's direct threats against individual companies, or that they don't want to alienate customers.
Here is an alternative idea: don't worry, nobody cares what your CEO thinks.
Data sent to me by market-researcher The Q Scores Co shows that among Americans who are at least 18 years old, the recognition level for most CEOs ranges from low to not even worth measuring.
Take Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft,MSFT.O one of the most powerful technology companies on the planet. Just 8% of respondents said they were familiar with him the last time Q Scores was asked to check, five years ago.
How about Jensen Huang, CEO of AI chipmaker Nvidia,NVDA.O which lately has been dueling with AppleAAPL.O for title of the world's most valuable company. Q Scores says it didn't have enough interest from clients like advertising and PR firms to measure Huang or most other top public company CEOs.
Their low visibility isn't a surprise, said Q Scores Executive Vice President Henry Schafer. "At least for the general public, they don't get that much regular exposure," he said.
Even if they were to endorse a candidate, Schafer said, "it really wouldn't have a significant impact on how you're going to vote."
Q Scores says its data is based on nationally representative online surveys balanced to U.S. census data.
It does not measure the appeal of politicians, though it did find 78% of Americans were familiar with Donald Trump in 2015, before his winning presidential run the next year. A much higher share of people had negative than positive perceptions of him that year, the firm found.
Q Scores did find a high recognition for a few special-case CEOs who play large public roles including Tesla's Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent Meta META.O.
On the other hand Americans definitely know their performers and entertainers, with singers Taylor Swift and Beyonce - both backers of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris - boasting familiarity scores above 80% and former television host Dr. Phil McGraw, a Trump supporter, not far behind.
Brian Riedl, senior fellow at free-market think tank the Manhattan Institute, said businesses may be keeping quiet so that Trump doesn't attack them by name, or to curry favor if Trump is re-elected. A perceived lack of influence may also play a role, not to mention the criticism that both parties level against "big business," he said.
"Nobody is waiting around to see who a CEO will endorse before deciding how to vote," Riedl said. Campaign contributions are where executives' views make a difference, he added.
As for Bezos, he wrote in a Washington Post column on Monday that "Presidential endorsements do not tip the scales of an election" and said he worried that an endorsement would create "a perception of bias."
Bezos acknowledged that an executive from his Blue Origin space company recently met with Trump. The company competes with Musk's SpaceX and others for U.S. launch contracts.
Jason Miner, a partner at strategic communications firm FGS Global and a former Democratic Party official, said the right endorsements can give a candidate credibility on areas like economics or military issues.
Celebrities meanwhile "can help with enthusiasm and a sense of momentum because of the news coverage and social chatter they garner," he said.
But ultimately, Miner said, "You’d be hard pressed to find voters who base their decisions on endorsements. People are voting for (or against) specific candidates, regardless of who endorsed them."
Americans know their stars, not their CEOs https://reut.rs/40qlJqG
Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by David Gregorio
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