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Global star Taylor Swift announced her support for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign on Tuesday. This highly anticipated election campaign could inspire millions of so-called Swifties.
The “Fortnight” singer did not endorse President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race, but she did endorse the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 just about a month before the election.
Swift’s reach is probably unmatched, some say she is now the most famous person in the world during her record-breaking Eras Tour. She has more than 280 million Instagram followers, far surpassing Harris’ 17 million and Donald Trump’s 26 million.
But can these indicators be translated into actual political influence? Scientists and experts have been debating this topic for years.
According to a PolitiFact article published in February, it would be “wrong to assume that Swift’s potential involvement in the campaign would be a panacea with guaranteed results.” The article continued:
Experts say it often takes more than a single message or action for celebrity endorsements to make a difference in elections. And younger people may be particularly hard to influence, as they regularly have the lowest voter turnout. An endorsement would attract attention, but their fans already lean left.
As my colleague Ja’han Jones wrote for The ReidOut Blog in May, several high-profile endorsement deals, including one from Swift, have had no significant impact on results in recent years. Jones wrote:
Beyoncé endorsed Democrat Beto O’Rourke against Republican Senator Ted Cruz in her home state of Texas in 2018. And that same year, Taylor Swift endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen in his bid to unseat Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Both O’Rourke and Bredesen lost, and celebrity endorsements seemed to have made little difference.
So the power of her endorsement may not lie so much in swaying Trump supporters or wooing independents, but rather in her ability to engage and mobilize voters more broadly. Vote.org said it saw a 1,226% increase in participation in the hour following Swift’s September 2023 Instagram post NPR reported that she urged her supporters to register to vote.
“Many Republicans rightly see Taylor as a force for influence,” MSNBC’s Ari Melber told his viewers in January. “Her influence ranges from culture and music to a broader, resurgent feminism to civic engagement. That could affect voter turnout.”
Regardless of whether Swift’s supportS The outcome for the Harris-Waltz ticket was overwhelming, and the Biden team reportedly had to fight hard for its victory.
As the New York Times reported in January, California Governor Gavin Newsom – then a top surrogate for the Biden campaign – had practically begged the pop icon to support the president’s re-election.
“Taylor Swift is great and unique,” Newsom, who endorsed Harris after Biden’s withdrawal, told reporters in September 2023. “What she was able to accomplish just by getting young people to consider that they have a voice and that they should have a choice in the next election, I think, is profoundly impressive.”
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
