On Tuesday, just minutes after a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that Republican Trump was widely seen as losing, the superstar singer/songwriter posted a message on Instagram saying she would be voting for his Democratic rival.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The tweet came as a surprise, even from the provocative Donald Trump: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” the former president said Sunday (September 15, 2024).

Though the all-caps post came without accompanying commentary or explanation, the context was clear.

On Tuesday, just minutes after a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that Republican Trump was widely seen as losing, the superstar singer/songwriter posted a message on Instagram saying she would be voting for his Democratic rival, calling Harris a “steady-handed, gifted leader.”

Celebrity endorsements rarely carry enormous weight, but the hugely popular Swift is seen as being in a class of her own, with more than 400 million followers on Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms — 10 million of whom “liked” her Instagram post.

“Going after Taylor Swift is a genuinely bad campaign strategy,” said one poster on social media platform X. “Taylor doesn’t get mad, she gets even.”

It was not clear what Trump hoped to gain by attacking Swift, though he may calculate that any publicity is better than none.

He has been criticized, even by fellow Republicans, for his recent association with conspiracy-minded right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who has at times joined him on his campaign plane.

The 31-year-old Loomer — who has called the Sept. 11 terror attacks an “inside job” and said some recent mass shootings were staged by Democrats — recently suggested that Swift had entered an “arranged relationship” with football star Travis Kelce “to influence the 2024 election.”

There is no evidence to support any of those claims.

Washington:

Global pop sensation Taylor Swift’s support for Kamala Harris may have boosted the Democratic vice president’s hopes of attracting young voters, but the question remains: Will the celebrity endorsement make a difference on Election Day?

Locked in a tight White House race, both Kamala Harris and her rival, Republican former President Donald Trump are doing all they can to lure voters on Election Day Nov. 5 and in early voting starting next week.

For his part, Trump dismissed Swift’s Tuesday night endorsement of Harris, saying he was “not a Taylor fan.”

With voter registrations down among young people in a country where 18 is the voting age, the first challenge for either campaign may be getting them to register to vote at all.

Young voters played a decisive role in Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory over the then-incumbent Trump in 2020. Biden captured about 61% of the vote to Trump’s 36% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to data from Tufts University.

A July 2024 analysis by Tufts University’s youth civic engagement group, CIRCLE, found that voter registrations have dropped significantly since then in 36 states among those aged 18-29. Harris launched her campaign on July 21 after Biden withdrew.

“Registering youths remains a major task in the months ahead,” the analysis said.

Enter Swift, an artist so successful she tied hip-hop star Beyonce’s record of 30 lifetime awards at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night. A 2023 Morning Consult poll found that 55% of self-described Swift fans were Democrats and 45% were millennials aged 28 to 43.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote on Tuesday to her 284 million Instagram followers, urging them to register to vote and make their own choice.

Her post drew 10.4 million “likes.” The vote.gov website received 405,999 visitors in the 24 hours after Swift shared a custom URL with followers, a U.S. government spokesperson said.

Harris aides say they would love for Swift to actively campaign, such as by appearing at a rally in her native Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could well decide the election.

But the campaign itself was not involved in Swift’s decision to back Harris.

The vice president’s aides said they learned of Swift’s support only when the entertainer, 34, posted it on Instagram minutes after the vice president stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

A QUESTION OF INFLUENCE

What difference does a celebrity endorsement make?

A 2008 Northwestern University report found Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement added a million votes to Barack Obama’s tally.

But a 2010 North Carolina State University report found celebrity endorsements by George Clooney and Angelina Jolie did little to move the political needle.

Margaretha Bentley, a professor at Arizona State University whose class studies Swift’s social importance, is unsure whether the pop singer will have an impact. She asked her students earlier this year whether a Swift endorsement would matter.

Some said they would follow Swift’s lead and others said it would prompt them to do more research. “Some students told me they listen to celebrities when it comes to, like, what coffee they would drink, not politics,” Bentley said.

A Swift fan at the VMA awards on Wednesday, Morgan Paris, said: “It’s good that she said what she feels. And I mean, I feel like her politics and her music are two separate things, so you can’t really combine them.”

Ashley Spillane wrote in a study published last month by Harvard’s Kennedy School that non-profits found “higher rates of online voter registration or poll worker sign-ups when a celebrity promotes these calls to action.”

“While some polling shows that people claim they aren’t influenced by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence indicates that these voices are incredibly powerful,” Spillane said.

SWIFT ACTION ON BEHALF OF HARRIS

The Harris campaign and their supporters are building on the endorsement, announcing pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan-inspired friendship bracelets.

The progressive group MoveOn.org is selling Swift T-shirts that play on Swift’s ongoing Eras concert tour. The shirt, reading “In My Voting Era,” is the fastest selling item the group has sold this year, spokesperson Britt Jacovich said.

Voters of Tomorrow, which seeks to boost the youth vote, is teaming up with the informal group “Swifties for Harris” on a phone bank on Saturday to target college students in Georgia and Wisconsin, both battleground states like Pennsylvania.

Swift “is one of the most influential people of our generation, and we’re definitely excited to see how we can take her message and turn that into more political action and get more people involved,” said Jessica Siles, a spokesperson for Voters of Tomorrow.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Global pop sensation Taylor Swift’s support for Kamala Harris may have boosted the Democratic vice president’s hopes of attracting young voters, but the question remains: Will the celebrity endorsement make a difference on Election Day?

Locked in a tight White House race, both Kamala Harris and her rival, Republican former President Donald Trump are doing all they can to lure voters on Election Day Nov. 5 and in early voting starting next week.

For his part, Trump dismissed Swift’s Tuesday night endorsement of Harris, saying he was “not a Taylor fan.”

With voter registrations down among young people in a country where 18 is the voting age, the first challenge for either campaign may be getting them to register to vote at all.

Young voters played a decisive role in Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory over the then-incumbent Trump in 2020. Biden captured about 61% of the vote to Trump’s 36% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to data from Tufts University.

A July 2024 analysis by Tufts University’s youth civic engagement group, CIRCLE, found that voter registrations have dropped significantly since then in 36 states among those aged 18-29. Harris launched her campaign on July 21 after Biden withdrew.

“Registering youths remains a major task in the months ahead,” the analysis said.

Enter Swift, an artist so successful she tied hip-hop star Beyonce’s record of 30 lifetime awards at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night. A 2023 Morning Consult poll found that 55% of self-described Swift fans were Democrats and 45% were millennials aged 28 to 43.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote on Tuesday to her 284 million Instagram followers, urging them to register to vote and make their own choice.

Her post drew 10.4 million “likes.” The vote.gov website received 405,999 visitors in the 24 hours after Swift shared a custom URL with followers, a U.S. government spokesperson said.

Harris aides say they would love for Swift to actively campaign, such as by appearing at a rally in her native Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could well decide the election.

But the campaign itself was not involved in Swift’s decision to back Harris.

The vice president’s aides said they learned of Swift’s support only when the entertainer, 34, posted it on Instagram minutes after the vice president stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

A QUESTION OF INFLUENCE

What difference does a celebrity endorsement make?

A 2008 Northwestern University report found Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement added a million votes to Barack Obama’s tally.

But a 2010 North Carolina State University report found celebrity endorsements by George Clooney and Angelina Jolie did little to move the political needle.

Margaretha Bentley, a professor at Arizona State University whose class studies Swift’s social importance, is unsure whether the pop singer will have an impact. She asked her students earlier this year whether a Swift endorsement would matter.

Some said they would follow Swift’s lead and others said it would prompt them to do more research. “Some students told me they listen to celebrities when it comes to, like, what coffee they would drink, not politics,” Bentley said.

A Swift fan at the VMA awards on Wednesday, Morgan Paris, said: “It’s good that she said what she feels. And I mean, I feel like her politics and her music are two separate things, so you can’t really combine them.”

Ashley Spillane wrote in a study published last month by Harvard’s Kennedy School that non-profits found “higher rates of online voter registration or poll worker sign-ups when a celebrity promotes these calls to action.”

“While some polling shows that people claim they aren’t influenced by celebrity voices when it comes to politics, more rigorous evidence indicates that these voices are incredibly powerful,” Spillane said.

SWIFT ACTION ON BEHALF OF HARRIS

The Harris campaign and their supporters are building on the endorsement, announcing pre-orders for its latest campaign wear: Swift fan-inspired friendship bracelets.

The progressive group MoveOn.org is selling Swift T-shirts that play on Swift’s ongoing Eras concert tour. The shirt, reading “In My Voting Era,” is the fastest selling item the group has sold this year, spokesperson Britt Jacovich said.

Voters of Tomorrow, which seeks to boost the youth vote, is teaming up with the informal group “Swifties for Harris” on a phone bank on Saturday to target college students in Georgia and Wisconsin, both battleground states like Pennsylvania.

Swift “is one of the most influential people of our generation, and we’re definitely excited to see how we can take her message and turn that into more political action and get more people involved,” said Jessica Siles, a spokesperson for Voters of Tomorrow.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Taylor Swift, one of the music industry’s biggest stars, endorsed Kamala Harris for president shortly after the debate ended on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) night.

“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,” Ms. Swift wrote in an Instagram post, which included a link to a voter registration website.

Ms. Swift has a dedicated following among young women, a key demographic in the November election, and her latest tour has generated more than $1 billion in ticket sales. In a half hour, the post received more than 2.3 million likes.

She included a picture of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button, and she signed the message “Childless Cat Lady.” The remark is a reference to three-year-old comments made by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, about women without children not having an equal stake in the country’s future.

Ms. Swift wrote that her endorsement was partially prompted by Mr. Trump’s decision to post AI-generated pictures suggesting that she had endorsed him. One showed Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, and the text said “Taylor wants YOU to VOTE for DONALD TRUMP.”

Mr. Trump’s posts “brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter,” Ms. Swift wrote. She added that “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice.”

The Trump campaign dismissed Ms. Swift’s endorsement.

“This is further evidence that the Democrat Party has unfortunately become a party of the wealthy elites,” said spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.

“There’s many Swifties for Trump out there in America,” she said, herself included.

Ms. Swift’s endorsement was not exactly a surprise. In 2020, she supported President Joe Biden, and she cheered for Harris in her debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence. She also was openly critical of Trump, saying he had stoked “the fires of white supremacy and racism.”

Ms. Swift is a popular figure nationwide, but especially among Democrats. An October 2023 Fox News poll found that 55% of voters overall, including 68% of Democrats, said they had a favorable view of Swift. Republicans were divided, with 43% having a favorable opinion and 45% an unfavorable one.

AP VoteCast suggests that a partisan divide on Ms. Swift was apparent as early as 2018. That’s the year Ms. Swift made her first political endorsement, supporting Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate over Republican Marsha Blackburn.

VoteCast found that among Tennessee voters that year, 55% of Democrats and just 19% of Republicans said they had a favorable opinion of Swift. Blackburn won by a comfortable margin in the deep red state.