Taylor Swift announced her endorsement of Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, minutes after the Democratic presidential nominee wrapped up her first debate against Republican rival Donald Trump.
The move aligns Harris with a singular force in the world of music, offering to bolster her support among younger and female voters as well as LGBTQ people. Aware of her potential to mobilize voters, Democrats had for months speculated about Swift backing their ticket.
Calling herself a “Childless Cat Lady,” a term used by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, to disparage women without children, Swift announced her support of Harris in an Instagram post featuring a photo of her with a cat in her arms.
Swift said she is voting for Harris “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” she added.
Swift also praised Harris’ selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, saying she was “heartened and impressed” by a candidate “who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
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Trump dismissed the endorsement Wednesday, saying he is “not a Swift fan” and suggested the decision could hurt the artist financially.
“She seems to always endorse a Democrat, and she’ll probably pay a price for it at the, in the marketplace,” the former president said Wednesday morning in an interview on Fox News.
Harris’ team moved quickly to capitalise on Swift’s endorsement. Quentin Fulks, her deputy campaign manager, said the endorsement “means a lot to us.”
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“It’s Taylor Swift. We respect her endorsement, and she was obviously watching and paying attention tonight,” Fulks said.
The campaign shared her endorsement on its social-media accounts and started taking pre-orders for Harris-Walz friendship bracelets, a nod to gifts Swift’s fans exchange at her concerts.
Walz said he is “incredibly grateful” for Swift’s support in an appearance on MSNBC, urging her fervent fan base to join her in supporting the ticket. “Swifties, KamalaHarris.com. Get on over there. Give us a hand. Get things going,” he said.
The pop superstar’s obsessive fans have been closely scrutinising her social-media accounts and public appearances for signs of her allegiance in the election. Swift backed President Joe Biden and Harris in 2020, and has over the course of her career made a handful of other public statements in favour of Democratic politicians.
Swift’s massive following has grown over the past year as she toured across the country and internationally, playing to sold-out sports stadiums, and as she began a romantic relationship with Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce.
The success of her Eras tour propelled her to become America’s youngest self-made billionaire last year at the age of 33, according to a Bloomberg Billionaires Index analysis.
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Swift said Tuesday that she was motivated to speak after learning that Trump used his social-media accounts to share artificial intelligence images that made it appear as though she was supporting him.
“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she said. It also led her to conclude “that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.”
Trump had actively courted Swift’s endorsement, touting his signing as president of the Music Modernization Act, which aimed to protect musicians’ copyrights, an issue for which the pop star has been an outspoken advocate.
“Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor and never will. There’s no way she could endorse crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt president in the history of our country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money,” Trump wrote in February — when Biden was at the top of the Democratic ticket — on Truth Social, the social-media platform he owns.
On Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom had warned Trump against disparaging Swift’s endorsement.
“Don’t disparage that endorsement,” Newsom said, speaking to reporters. “She is a cultural icon. Something big has happened in the world in terms of the energy and vibrancy she’s associated with, the optimism she’s associated with.”
Swift also timed her 2020 endorsement to a debate, announcing it after Harris faced off against then-Vice President Mike Pence.
“So apt that it’s come out on the night of the VP debate. Gonna be watching and supporting @KamalaHarris by yelling at the tv a lot,” she wrote that year in a post on X — then known as Twitter. “And I also have custom cookies,” she added, referring to desserts featuring the Democratic candidates’ names.
Swift first stepped into this year’s political discourse with a post encouraging fans to vote in the March 5 Super Tuesday primaries.
She’s been facing harsh backlash from pro-Harris fans, including some who call themselves “Swifties for Kamala,” since Sunday, when she was photographed hugging Brittany Mahomes, the wife of one of Kelce’s teammates, at the US Open. In August, Mahomes liked a post of Trump’s on Instagram that included a list of 20 issues he wants to prioritize in a second term.
Swift made her first public endorsement in 2018, when she backed Democrat Phil Bredesen in the race for a US Senate seat from Tennessee against Republican Marsha Blackburn. She referred to Blackburn, who won the race, as “Trump in a wig” in a 2020 documentary, criticising the lawmaker’s stances on civil-rights protections for gay couples, women’s pay and anti-domestic violence legislation.
