Political and pop culture pundits alike are all waiting for one star who has yet to voice her support for Kamala Harris’ presidential bid: Taylor Swift. Photos: AFP, Reuters
Ever since sitting United States President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris for the candidacy, celebrities have been rallying around her.
Musicians like Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X and Cardi B, as well as A-list actors like George Clooney and Barbra Streisand, have expressed support for Harris’ campaign, which received a record US$81mil in the 24 hours after Biden, 81, stood aside.
If elected, Harris, 59, will be the first woman to serve as the US president.
But political and pop culture pundits alike are waiting for one star who has yet to voice her support for Harris’ presidential bid: Taylor Swift.
Arguably the world’s biggest superstar of the moment, the American pop queen has kept mum so far about the presidential elections.
The 34-year-old’s visibility and influence is at a high as she continues her record-breaking The Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour in music history and the first to earn over US$1bil. The tour is now in its European leg.
Swift has immense rallying power and has proven herself to be a political force.
During National Voting Day on Sept 19, 2023, Swift posted a message on Instagram urging her then 272 million followers to register to vote through the non-profit Vote.org.
According to Vote.org, the post resulted in more than 35,000 registrations, the most since 2020 and a 23% jump from 2022. The number of 18-year-olds registered was more than double that of 2022.
A Newsweek poll conducted among 1,500 voters and published in May found that 22% of voters who supported Democrat Biden in the 2020 election said they would be more likely to vote for a Republican candidate in an election if Swift endorsed them.
Meanwhile, 16% of those who supported former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, 78, in 2020 are more likely to vote for a Democrat endorsed by Swift.
A faction of her fans, known as Swifties, are already rallying behind Harris.
An X account named Swifties for Harris (@Swifties4Kamala), launched soon after Mr Biden backed Harris, calls itself “a coalition of Taylor Swift fans committed to protecting the United States of America’s historical democracy by working together to help elect progressive candidates in local and national elections, including Vice-President Kamala Harris for our country’s next president”.
The account is not affiliated with Swift and has over 38,000 followers.
In a post made on July 23, the group said: “We’re coming together as a fandom because we’ve seen first-hand how effective we can be as a group.”
Some of its key concerns are ensuring reproductive freedom, having gun control laws, taking climate change seriously and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community.
Gun control activist David Hogg has also taken to X to ask Swift who she will be endorsing in the presidential race.
He wrote on July 22: “We need to do a ton to bring back the youth vote and you could literally be the reason we don’t fall to a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-climate felon.” He repeated the post again on July 23.
Swift has supported Harris and Biden in the past. She endorsed him in the 2020 elections in an interview with V magazine that year.
She also posted about the interview on X on the day of the vice-presidential debates in October 2020. She wrote: “Gonna be watching and supporting Kamala Harris by yelling at the TV a lot.”
While she stayed largely out of political discussions for much of her career, she has become more open about her political views since 2018, when she endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen in Tennessee.
Her track Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince (2019) conveyed her disillusionment with US politics.
But many feel her other protest song, Only The Young (2020), is her most politically charged anthem yet. It tackles subjects such as school shootings, Trump and vote-tampering concerns, and was used in a video advertisement for the 2020 Biden/Harris campaign.
She also denounced the US Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 and has often expressed support for the rights of the LGBTQ community.
Supporters of Harris are hoping for Swift’s endorsement, especially in the light of Trump’s running mate and Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s attacks on Harris.
A clip of Vance, 39, criticising Harris in 2021 as a “childless cat (lady) who (is) miserable” has resurfaced following his entry into the vice-president race.
Journalist Anna Bower posted on X a picture of Swift posing with Benjamin Button, one of her three cats, on the cover of Time magazine when she was selected as 2023’s Person Of The Year, and wrote: “Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
