A growing portion of Taylor Swift fans are throwing their support behind Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. presidential election and social media accounts dedicated to their efforts are steadily gaining followers.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that he would not be seeking reelection in the 2024 presidential race after weeks of pressure from within his party and from key Democratic donors to step down amid concerns over his age and mental acuity. On the same day, he threw his support behind Harris. Since the announcement, she has secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee, meaning she will likely be former President Donald Trump's opponent in November's election.
Now a host of Swifties have publicly declared their support for the Democrat, with some urging Swift to do the same. Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Swift and Harris' campaign for comment on Thursday.
A TikTok account called @Swifties4Kamala launched soon after Biden backed Harris for the nomination. The account, which is not affiliated with Swift, describes itself as a "Coalition of Swifties mobilizing to get Dem candidates elected nationwide."
At the time of writing, the account had 64,900 followers and more than 164,000 likes.
A slideshow was uploaded to the account for the first post, which detailed why the campaign was started.
"Swifties for Harris is 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," part of the post reads.
"We believe Harris has the experience, integrity, wit, and stamina to beat Donald Trump and progress the United States into a more flourishing and inclusive future."
On the second slide, the campaign said there are a variety of reasons they were supporting Harris, including a future where "all people are treated with dignity and respect", "reproductive freedom and choice are available in every state" and "immigrants are welcome."
The third slide states: "As a fandom, we have the power to invigorate and inspire a new generation of voters and support the voters who have led the way before us. Together, Swifties have the power to help elect Vice President Harris as the 47th President of the United States."
An X account (formerly Twitter) and Instagram account with the same name were also launched. At the time of writing, the X account had 42,400 followers and the Instagram account had 9,212.
While Swift has yet to endorse a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, she did share her support for Harris during the 2020 election cycle.
Taking to X in August 2020, Swift responded "YES" to Harris' post, in which the Democrat said she was "honored to join [Biden] as our party's nominee for vice president, and do what it takes to make him our commander-in-chief."
In October 2020, Swift declared she was voting for the Democrats by posting a photo holding a plate of custom cookies decorated with the Biden/Harris campaign logo.
Swift revealed in the social media post that she had conducted an interview with V Magazine about her decision to vote for Biden.
"So apt that it's come out on the night of the VP debate. Gonna be watching and supporting @KamalaHarris by yelling at the tv a lot. And I also have custom cookies," she wrote in the caption.
'Start the Healing Process'
During the V Magazine interview, Swift said Biden and Harris gave America the "chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs."
"The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included," Swift said.
There is no doubt Swift has political influence, as exclusive polling conducted for Newsweek by Redfield & Wilton Strategies in January found that 18 percent of voters say they're "more likely" or "significantly more likely" to vote for a candidate endorsed by the singer.
Seventeen percent said they would be less likely to vote for a Swift-backed candidate, while 55 percent would be neither more or less likely to do so.
The survey, which had a sample size of 1,500 eligible voters, was conducted on January 18 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.53 percent.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
