Taylor Swift is the influencer to end all influencers, able to use her immense fame and power effectively enough to influence the economy and laws, filmmaking and album release strategies. She has lent her voice in the past, with great effect, to voter registration efforts, but with the news that Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic candidate, will Swift support her in the 2024 campaign against the Republican candidate? Donald Trump?
Swift named fifth most powerful woman in the world Forbes Magazine in 2023, thanks to her dominance across multiple sectors and her ability to influence them on a macro level, while still reaching individuals on a micro level. Harris is also on the list and actually ranks higher than Swift at number 3, but, as Forbes Magazine Swift’s power, speaking directly into the ears of millions, is a different flavor than Harris’s “hard power” as a legislator, the paper notes. Swift’s endorsement would be an unparalleled asset to Harris’s budding 2024 campaign.
While Swift kept quiet about her political views early in her career for fear of offending potential fans, the 2020 documentary Miss America gave the world a look at the record-breaking moment she broke in 2018, publicly endorsing two Democratic candidates in the Tennessee midterm elections.
“I need to be on the right side of history,” she says in the documentary, holding her phone and preparing to press the button to post her political message on Instagram while her mother and agent look on nervously.
It was the first of many political actions in Swift’s public life. She’s proven that a flap of her figurative butterfly wings can cause a political awareness storm: In 2023, she drove about 32,000 voter registrations after urging fans to register to speak out on her platforms. She’s also spoken out specifically against Trump on multiple occasions, not beating around the bush in a 2020 tweet calling him a “racist” and supporting President Joe Biden in that election, and another, where she urged people to vote early and condemned Donald Trump“Ineffective leadership.”
This time, she’s even at the center of a red-state conspiracy theory, with 18 percent of Americans polled in February saying they thought she might be part of a secret operation to re-elect Biden (and rig the Super Bowl, an equally important contest, though more routine than a presidential election). In the same poll, 68 percent said they approved of her voter registration efforts. Though rumors that Biden wanted her to help his campaign never materialized, Swift has infiltrated the Trump family: Ivanka Trump Last week shared photos of her “favorite Swiftie” Arabella“Bad Blood’s” 13th birthday was celebrated with a birthday cake inspired by the movie.
So the world (especially Democratic organizers) held its breath to see if Swift would throw her considerable cultural weight behind Harris, the Democratic Party’s newly anointed great hope. A “Swifties for Harris” account on X (formerly Twitter) was created, unaffiliated with Swift herself, and Swifties were ready to heed their tough-guy leader’s call.
A representative for Swift did not immediately respond. Vanity Fairrequest for comment.
