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A political playlist: The fight over campaign songs
In 1960, the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy featured the popular song “High Hopes,” with specially-written lyrics sung by Frank Sinatra:
K E Double-N E D Y
Jack’s the nation’s favorite guy
Everyone wants to back Jack
Jack is on the right track
‘Cause he’s got high hopes
He’s got high hopes
Nineteen Sixty’s the year for his high hopes
The right music can set a candidate apart from the pack, and that’s why it’s been part of the American political landscape since Day One. University of Michigan music history professor Mark Clague says campaign music goes back to the founding of our nation, “back to the time of George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Really even predates the time when we had broad, popular elections, when it really was the Electoral College. Music was still a part of the discourse, and it was a way to bring passion into politics.”
Talk about passion: The 2024 election has become a Battle of the Bands, starting with Kid Rock at the Republican National Convention in July:
And a few weeks later, the Democrats turned their roll call into a dance party, led by DJ Cassidy:
A catchy song can be a campaign’s calling card, a free ad that plays indefinitely. Take Bill Clinton with Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” or Ronald Reagan with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” That song took on special meaning in the days after 9/11.
Greenwood said he wrote it for all Americans, and initially he did not want it used as part of any political campaign: “No, that bothered me at first. The Democratic Party had called me in 1984 and wanted me to perform ‘U.S.A.’ at their convention in San Francisco, and I said no. I declined. The Republicans also called me for their convention in Dallas; I also declined.”
But when President Reagan asked Greenwood to sing it in 1988, he did, and it’s since become a Republican anthem.
Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.” at the 1988 Republican National Convention:
Greenwood also sang it at the RNC this past summer.
So, if a Democrat asked him to use his song, would he let them? “If that question came, I’d have to consider that,” said Greenwood. “This is the fourth or fifth Republican president I’ve sang for. But I’ve sang for ten presidents, including Presidents Obama and Clinton and Carter and Nixon and Bush. And so, if another president on the Democratic Party wants to use ‘God Bless U.S.A.,’ I don’t know that it’d be wise, but I’d have to consider that.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has her own musician friends, most notably Beyoncé, who’s allowed Harris to use the song “Freedom” in her campaign.
The Harris campaign’s ad “We Choose Freedom,” featuring the Beyoncé song “Freedom”:
But what happens when a musician doesn’t want their music used? Dozens of artists, from ABBA to The Rolling Stones, have said “no” to the Trump campaign.
The Issac Hayes family objected to the use of “Hold On, I’m Comin'” by the Trump campaign, and last week a judge in Atlanta granted a preliminary injunction barring them from using it.
And Celine Dion pushed back when the Trump campaign used the “Titanic” movie theme, “My Heart Will Go On,” saying, “Really, that song?”
Lawrence Iser is a music copyright attorney in Los Angeles who successfully sued John McCain’s campaign over the use of Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty.” “If they’ve been told not to use it, but then they continue to use it, then that’s actually copyright infringement,” said Iser. “And it’s actionable. It’s actionable in Federal Court. So, you can sue.
“So, if you are a political candidate, those candidates need to respect the Constitutional right of a musician or a songwriter to just say no to the use of their song in a political campaign,” Iser said.
Music may not change voters’ minds, but it can definitely make them sway. “It’s having that chorus that sort of sticks in your brain that doesn’t let you forget it,” said Clague. “And so, that’s part of music’s power in a way that, you know, a stump speech is never gonna pull off.”
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
