Pop megastar Taylor Swift has announced her support for Kamala Harris in the US presidential election following Harris’ debate with Donald Trump. This was reported by Politico with reference to Komersant ukrainskyi
“I will vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election. I believe she is a confident, gifted leader, and I believe we can achieve so much more in this country if we are guided by calm rather than chaos,”
– swift wrote in a post on her Instagram account.
The singer made the post alongside an image of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button and captioned it “Childless Cat Lady”. This is apparently a reference to Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance ‘s disparaging comments that the country is run by a “bunch of childless cat ladies”. Swift has three cats, all named after characters from films or television series: Benjamin Button, Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey.
Swift, who is one of the biggest celebrities on the planet, said it is “much easier to vote early” and that she will share information on how to register and vote early on her accounts. She has an impressive social media reach with 283 million followers on Instagram. Her post received more than 2.4 million likes within the first 30 minutes of publication. Within 5 hours, this figure rose to almost 6 million likes.
This is not the first time Swift has intervened in politics. In particular, she endorsed President Joe Biden ‘s campaign in 2020, but remained silent on his support during this campaign.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz welcomed the endorsement in an interview on MSNBC after the debate.
“I’m grateful to Taylor Swift, and I say that as a cat owner. This will be an opportunity for the Swifts. Join us and help us get started,”
– said the Minnesota governor.
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Taylor Swift’s song “The Man”, which talks about the double standards women face in their careers, was played on the speakers after Harris delivered a speech at the debate watch party – minutes after she announced her endorsement.
In her post, Swift referred to Trump’s recent use of AI images featuring her on his social media site Truth Social, which falsely suggested that she would endorse him.
The singer wrote that this “really triggered my fears about AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation”. She said it convinced her to be “very transparent” about her voting plans.
This endorsement comes at a time when Swift has been criticised online by liberals for her friendship with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is a teammate of Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce.
Brittany Mahomes seemed to like Trump’s Instagram post last month, and last week the former president praised her on Truth Social for defending him. Swift was photographed hugging Brittany Mahomes last weekend while both were at the US Open.
Trump’s campaign criticised the endorsement as “further proof that the Democratic Party has become the party of the wealthy elite”.
“Who will Taylor Swift support” has been one of the main questions during the current US presidential race. In 2023, she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and her popularity in the US and around the world is off the charts. According to a survey in June 2024, 31% of Americans aged 18-29 (15.9 million people) and 33% of US citizens aged 30-44 (20.89 million people) consider themselves Taylor Swift fans. In general, as Newsweek reported in January 2024, 18% of voters are ready to vote for a candidate whom Swift will point out to them.