“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” said Swift in her Instagram post last Tuesday to her 284 million followers.
Signing off as ‘Childless Cat Lady,’ Swift ostensibly addresses statements made Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance on how the “Democratic Party is run by childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives” and that “childless Americans have no stake in society.”
Anticipatedly, as a devoted feminist, Swift was also “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.”
Do celebrity endorsements matter?
According to a 2024 study from Havard’s Kennedy School on celebrity political activity, “celebrities draw increased engagement, increased attention, and they increase conversation…and no matter the political party or the candidate, there is a real hunger to be affiliated with the celebrities that can do that.”
For example, YouTuber David Dobrik and media influencer Hailey Bieber’s online campaigns in 2020 and 2022 both saw success in their respective desired candidates. More evidently, Oprah Winfrey’s backing of Barack Obama in the 2008 election boasted one million additional votes in Obama’s favor according to a study by Northwestern University.
Northeastern University’s associate professor of journalism, Peter Mancusi, corroborates the potential of Swift’s campaign to “nudge undecided voters towards Harris.”
Regardless, many others express skepticism towards Swift’s political power. Rich Zou, a Northeastern undergraduate and “Swiftie,” notes that Swift’s endorsements won’t necessarily change any minds. “I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan, but I care more about the candidates’ policies…while I know a lot of my friends will go out and vote because of her, I don’t think her endorsement will play a huge role,” says Zou.
Like many, Zou and his counterparts are set to cast votes that circumvent the monochromaticity of red or blue. “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,” said Morgan Paris, another ‘Swiftie’ at the VMA Awards.
Moreover, in another 2023 study by Wharton Business School professor Michael Platt, celebrity political engagement could potentially “backfire.”
Swift’s influence
However, when looking at numbers, Swift’s impacts are undeniable.
In just 24 hours, Swift’s post saw 10.4 million likes and over 400,000 new registers, 65,000 of which aged 18-29 on the vote.gov website the artist shared on social media. Although it is not guaranteed that all new voters came from Swift’s endorsement, the website did see an unprecedented “1,226 percent increase in participation in the hour after Swift’s post.”
According to a study by Morning Consult Survey, 53% of US adults identify as fans of the artist while 16% identified themselves as “avid” fans of the star.
More importantly, Swift’s overwhelmingly young fanbase, an age group with the lowest historical turnouts, profoundly aligns with liberal ideologies, further orienting Harris’ campaign.
As young voters have more recently evolved to become a determining factor in election results, as demonstrated by Biden’s 61% to Trump’s 36% voting percentage for voters aged 18 to 29, Swift’s genuine dedication to voicing gender and cultural rights and justice has shaped the positive attitudes towards the democrats.
“In the past, I’ve been reluctant to voice my political opinions publicly, but due to several events in my life and the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote on Instagram in 2013 after publicly opposing Republican Marsha Blackburn’s excluding comments towards LGBTQ+ rights.
For GenZers, Swift has long become the empowerment of enthusiasm and charisma. In this case, Swift made it “cool” for people to vote.
Endorsing Swift’s message
“Swift made efforts to craft a breakup song between Trump’s decades of misogyny and the America he wants to keep dominating,” notes The Philadelphia Inquirer in referencing Harris’ clever remake of “I Knew You Were Trouble (Kamala’s Version).” Other Harris campaign supporters are building off Swift’s endorsement with Swiftie friendship bracelets and “In My Voting Era” T-shirts.
This is a tight election, “but celebrities are good at activating voters on the margins, and Swift’s reach is broad enough at this point that her impact there could make a real difference come November,” concludes Vox.
AI and election deep fakes
Aside from proposing her choice of vote in the election, Swift also addressed concerns about the potential challenges of algorithmic filters and misinformation online.
In her post, Swift expressed discontent towards photos of herself dressed as Uncle Sam, with texts saying “Taylor wants YOU to VOTE for DONALD TRUMP” and other “deep-fakes” showing fans wearing T-shirts that read ‘Swifties for Trump.’
“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” wrote Swift, “the simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” she added.
While Trump’s AI deep fakes had ultimately backfired, Swift reminds social media users of the unknown potentials of AI in intuitively influencing our decisions and ideas. “AI really does create a much more serious threat to the fundamental touchstone of democracy, which is truth-telling,” says Douglas Mirell, an entertainment lawyer working to restrain unauthorized AI usage. “It is so pervasive and so potentially manipulable.”
Written by Julia Jiang
