Within the limelight of celebrities, this election year has proven to be a critical one for the endorsements of politicians. Here on the island, the governmental race has been a chaotic mess with the unprecedented gain in popularity of the Independence Party and their candidate, Juan Dalmau. If elected, his win will be one of historic precedence, as Puerto Rico has never had a governor who does not outwardly support statehood nor being a commonwealth. While the political divide in the island has grown to the point of a reigning party to shake in their boots, the question remains and the answer to be settled on November 5th on the outcome of this election. One artist has been staying silent on an endorsement, but not on the disdain of a certain political party.
Our main exporter of reggaeton music, Bad Bunny, is no stranger to speaking up about his political opinions in a subtle way. He has not given a proper endorsement to a potential governor in his career – only to the mayoral candidate Edwin Marrero Santigo from his hometown in Vega Baja on his Instagram story. Although older Puerto Ricans have voiced their contempt for the trap singer for being too vulgar or inappropriate, as his music has been catered to younger audiences who listen to reggaeton, the trap singer has always been vocal about his political views in some of his songs, one of them being the recent release of “Una Velita” that was released on the seventh anniversary of hurricane María’s landfall on Puerto Rico. But Bad Bunny is more inclined to staying silent and “speak when needed” as of late. To have the global and local relevance that Bad Bunny has is something that most politicians crave; they crave to be endorsed, though they won’t admit it. For the New Progress Party, or PNP, to have an artist’s endorsement of this caliber would be one to kill for, as past administrations have tried to include the trap artist in governmental initiatives. For example, in 2018 then-governor Ricardo Roselló asked the singer publicly to suggest ways that he could create a dialogue to better help the Department of Education (DE) on the island after Bad Bunny expressed publicly that they do not listen to their teachers. To this, Bad Bunny replied that he is not the Secretary of Education. However, in 2024, the singer is not shy of voicing his disdain over the party and their candidate for governor, Jenniffer Gonzalez. In an interview with El Tony, Bad Bunny made it clear about his ill feelings about the politics in the island. He goes on about how both the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the PNP are hurting the island, especially the elected officials whose corruption rots the system that is designed to uphold the wellbeing of the people, but instead have worked only in favor of some in office, not the people of Puerto Rico. He highlights an important argument, which can be open to discussion, that artists, nor celebrities in general, should be expected to fix public work projects on the regular because of the lack of maintenance and irresponsibility in part by local and state governments.
While it is no surprise that people will comment on artists who aren’t in the political status quo, Bad Bunny’s brazen critiques are often compared to those of Residente, another artist who is outspokenly pro-independence and has criticized the politics of the island for years. But where Bad Bunny and Residente have diverged is the talking about public political endorsements, as Bad Bunny has not yet revealed, or if he will ever reveal, who will be his pick for governor of Puerto Rico. This is a topic that even Americans have been watching on his side, as the Washington Post released an article titled “The pop star endorsement that could really swing the election? Bad Bunny.” The speculation within the article focuses on if Bad Bunny would endorse in the American elections the Democratic Party candidate, Kamala Harris, and if his endorsement could sway Latinx voters in the United States. This comes after the controversial endorsements of Anuel AA and Justin Quiles giving their nods to the Republican Party candidate, Donald J. Trump, coming as a surprise to most Puerto Rican people due to the controversial nature of the candidate and his past remarks regarding the island. While the Harris campaign will try to reach out to the Puerto Rican diaspora to vote in the United States, one oversight in the article comes from how Bad Bunny cannot vote in US elections even if he lives on the mainland, as individuals who are registered to vote on the island cannot vote for a presidential candidate. And even if he did, it is unlikely that he would due to his branding and public expressions of focusing the narrative on Puerto Rico, not the United States.
In recent news, a series of advertisements along one of the busiest highways in San Juan were revealed to be seen by the population. These read “Quien vota PNP, no ama a Puerto Rico,” “Votar PNP es votar por la corrupción,” and “Votar PNP es votar por LUMA.” These statements led to shockwaves, especially the candidates running within the PNP, leading to counterattacks and lawsuits to the billboard company who published it. Although political signs are needed with the disclaimer of what political party has paid for said propaganda, it can be said that the sign was a proclamation of personal opinion from a private citizen to try dissuade voting to the PNP. This can come as the avalanche that breaks the party as they scramble to try and take the billboards away from public view. It was later revealed that Bad Bunny had personally paid for those billboards. It is as if they knew the influence a trap artist can have on the island and how voters are straying away from the party that has had two consecutive election periods of ruling over the island. And while the attacks on the opposing party have been plenty, showing their ‘if they go low, I go lower’ strategy against the Independence Party and the singer, they will brand the opposers as communists. It is no surprise that Bad Bunny has had an incremental influence on young voters to initiate a change in the political environment of the tradition of bipartidism in the island. And while I can talk about the looming growth of fascism occurring throughout the world and the PNP employing similar tactics of fear mongering of change, one thing is for certain; Bad Bunny’s silence over the matter of his pick has the PNP party trembling in anger at two things. The first being that he has not said he is officially endorsing Juan Dalmau for them to point their finger at Bad Bunny to say he is the influence of ‘the rising communism’ in the island and ruining the youth of the island. The second reason is that they are mad at themselves. Not mad in what Bad Bunny is doing, but at the opportunity to not have buttered him up earlier and have him as an influential spokesperson for the party and the sway of young voters that could flock to vote for the infamous pro-statehood party.