Taylor Swift by Brian Friedman / Shutterstock.com (Left), Kamala Harris by The White House / Flickr (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // Taylor Swift endorsed Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris via Instagram just minutes after the September 10 presidential debate between Harris and Donald Trump ended.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift wrote in a caption for a September 10 post:
I’m voting for @kamalaharris 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. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.
>>A Look at Tim Walz’s Record<<
Swift prefaced her endorsement by stating that she wanted “to be very transparent” about her plans as a voter after Trump’s site posted an AI image in August that appeared to indicate that she had endorsed the former president.
The AI post “really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.”
The post included a photo of her with one of her cats, and she signed it with “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” referencing Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s viral comment about “childless cat ladies” in the U.S.
Swift’s message reaches a huge number of people across the world thanks to her 283 million following on Instagram alone. At the time of this article’s publication, Swift’s post was liked approximately 8.6 million times.
In January, Newsweek released data which suggested that 18% of voters would back whichever presidential candidate the pop icon supported.
>>Read: 18% of Voters Likely to Back Whoever Taylor Swift Endorses in 2024<<
Swift backed Biden and Harris in 2020 and was vocal online about her opposition to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” Swift posted on Tuesday night, along with a reminder to register to vote. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”
According to the Washington Post and Google Trends, Swift’s announcement coincided with a surge in searches for how to register to vote.
The Washington Post reported that the first spike in searches for voting registration came in the middle of the debate, as Trump began discussing the January 6 riot.
“Search interest tapered off as the debate wound down. And then, when Swift’s endorsement dropped, it jumped back up,” the Washington Post noted, adding that the surge “overlapped with a big spike in searches for Swift herself.”
