Engaging Voters Via Celebrity Politician Strategy: A Multi-Group Analysis

Political parties nominate celebrity politicians to maximize votes and maintain official power. There is a lack of research in the literature on the strategy of the celebrity politician and its impact on voting intentions. Regardless of voters’ inclination toward a political party, research seldom investigates how partisan identity affects voting intention in light of the mediating roles of perceived image and attitude, and the moderating roles of brand affinity and celebrity politician profession. A representative national sample of Lebanese voters was set using the stratified proportional random sampling method with 1269 eligible voters. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine the relationships. Differences in attitudes against the celebrity business people negatively predicting voting intention and the moderating positive impact of brand affinity on public intellectuals’ perceived image and voting intentions were underlined. This study discusses the contribution of expectancy-value theory and provides promising future research directions.