Bad Bunny Pays for Billboards in Push to Upend Puerto Rico Vote
(Bloomberg) -- Bad Bunny has made Puerto Rico’s Latin trap music genre a global phenomenon worth millions of dollars. He’s now using that stardom to try to upend politics on his home island.
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The three-time Grammy winner said he’s paying for billboards across San Juan that slam the New Progressive Party, the frontrunner in November’s gubernatorial election. The billboards have popped up along the city’s main avenues this week, with one saying “A vote for the PNP is a vote for corruption.”
On his X account, Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, said he paid for the campaign because “I do love Puerto Rico.” Bad Bunny’s representatives at United Talent Agency didn’t immediately return a call asking for further comments.
The superstar’s high-profile involvement could further complicate an election marked by simmering anger over Puerto Rico’s crumbling power grid. While Bad Bunny has yet to endorse a candidate, he’s often railed against the two main parties that alternate power on the island, the ruling PNP and the Popular Democratic Party.
“It’s good to go out onto the streets and protest, make yourself felt as a country, but the biggest protest will be to go out on November 5th and vote against these people”, he told Anthony Caceres, the Puerto Rican podcaster “El Tony Pregunta” earlier this month.
Polls have shown Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, the PNP’s candidate, leading the governor’s race. But a third-party challenger Juan Dalmau, with the Puerto Rican Independence Party, has been gaining ground, particularly among young voters frustrated over the island’s slow recovery in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.
While Bad Bunny has weighed on Puerto Rico politics, he has sidestepped getting involved in the US presidential contest, where he could be a powerful force in swaying Hispanic voters.
Three other reggaeton artists — Justin Quiles, Anuel AA and Nicky Jam — have endorsed Donald Trump in recent weeks.
“I am not getting involved in politics, politics gets into my life because it affects my country, because it affects Puerto Rico,” Bad Bunny said on the “El Tony Pregunta” podcast.
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