TLC Just Made The Most Unexpected Presidential Endorsement

Celebrity endorsements abound in the 2020 race for president, though it seems one candidate hasn’t been quite the high-profile favorite. While Sen. Bernie Sanders is racking up endorsements from the likes of The Strokes, Cardi B, and Ariana Grande (and currently leading in the polls), billionaire candidate Tom Steyer hasn’t been getting quite the same level of support. That is, until now.

Although Bernie may have the coveted Vampire Weekend headlining his rallies, you can now expect to dance to the tune of “No Scrubs” while Tom Steyer preaches about his five-pillar climate change plan. Why, you may ask, would that ever happen? Well, that’s because Tom Steyer’s (first-ever?) celebrity endorsement is here, and it’s from R&B legend TLC.

According to a press release, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, the remaining members of the trio since Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes died in a car crash in 2002, are set to perform Friday evening at Steyer’s “Battle Ready” rally alongside “I Love It” Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop in Las Vegas. The artists will both perform one day ahead of the Nevada Caucus, shortly following a heated Democratic debate in Nevada earlier in the week. 

While Steyer didn’t qualify for Wednesday’s debate (perhaps two billionaires on stage really might have been overkill?), he is actually doing surprisingly well in Nevada. Despite the fact that he doesn’t have any pledged delegates, the 62-year-old hedge fund manager and philanthropist isn’t as far behind in the polls as expected: a recent RealClearPolitics poll has him at 10.3% in Nevada, just behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren and ahead of Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Steyer, until this week, was even polling ahead of Warren until her spectacular takedown of newcomer (and other billionaire) Mike Bloomberg on Wednesday night.

As far as we can tell, TLC is Steyer’s first celebrity endorsement, and honestly he could do a lot worse than having the 90s legends showing up for him. T-Boz and Chilli dropped their latest last album in 2017, so if you are planning on heading to Nevada for the free concert, erm, Steyer rally, you will likely hear a mix of new and old songs. Although neither member of TLC has spoken out about the Steyer endorsement yet, the band does seem to be re-tweeting stories with the announcement, so at the very least, we can confirm this is definitely happening.