While Taylor Swift is yet to endorse anyone for the upcoming election, a PR expert has told Newsweek the singer is likely to throw her support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris became a late entrant into the 2024 White House race after President Joe Biden announced in July that he would not be seeking reelection following weeks of pressure from within his own party and from key Democratic donors to step down amid concerns over his age and mental acuity.
As Harris' showdown with former President Donald Trump—the GOP nominee—dominates the news cycle, a host of Swifties have publicly declared their support for the Democrat, with some urging the singer to do the same.
Luana Ribeira, founder of Dauntless PR, said the buzz surrounding Harris as a presidential candidate is palpable and clever social media posts and support from celebrities are crucial to creating this atmosphere of optimism and excitement. Ribeira believes that Swift's endorsement is imminent.
Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Swift for comment on Thursday.
"The trending hashtag #SwiftiesforHarris is a great sign for Kamala as we all know Taylor Swift fans know how to pull together and organize," Ribeira told Newsweek.
"Although Taylor Swift hasn't yet publicly voiced her support for Kamala, she backed the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020 so her endorsement is likely. The biggest advantage this will have is possibly getting people interested in the election who previously had no intention of voting.
"The key to success for Kamala is not to convert committed Republicans, they won't vote for her no matter what she says and does. Her focus needs to be on encouraging people who typically don't vote to come and support her at the ballot boxes."
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 104,800 followers and more than 465,000 likes.
"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," one of the posts on the account reads.
An X, formerly Twitter, account and Instagram account with the same name were also launched. At the time of writing, the X account had 58,100 followers and the Instagram account had 37,600.
Ribeira explained that the reason celebrity endorsements are so important is because they are the ultimate brand people trust and recognize.
"If someone you think is amazing thinks that someone else is amazing, you're going to listen to that more than you would simply hearing facts and figures or listening to that person try to sell themselves to you," she said.
"Celebrity endorsements are like the ultimate personal recommendation. If you want a plumber, you ask your friends if they can recommend someone. Now, the vast majority of the U.S. population won't know a presidential candidate personally, but if someone they admire is backing them, that will definitely boost their opinion of them and make them sit up and take notice of the things they stand for."
Experts recently told Newsweek that the highly influential Swift is likely delaying her public endorsement of Harris to ensure maximum impact at the polls this November.
Over the years, Swift has proved herself to be a political force. On September 19, National Voter Registration Day, the singer asked her followers to register on the nonprofit, nonpartisan website Vote.org in a post on Instagram. According to the organization, Swift's post was followed by a surge of more than 35,000 registrations—an almost 25 percent increase over the same day the previous year.
Andrea Hailey, the CEO of Vote.org, said in a statement that the single-day surge in registrations was a "highly encouraging sign of voter enthusiasm," particularly as there was a 115 percent spike over 2022 in newly eligible 18-year-olds registering to vote.
In May, a poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek found that 22 percent of voters who backed Biden in the 2020 election said they would be more likely to vote for a GOP candidate in an election if Swift endorsed them.
The survey, which was conducted among 1,500 eligible voters on May 1, showed a 9-point increase from January, when only 13 percent of Biden 2020 supporters said they would be more likely to vote for a Republican candidate backed by Swift.
While Swift has yet to weigh in on the latest developments in the presidential race, the assumption has always been that Swift will back the Democratic ticket, given the fact that she did share her support for Harris during the 2020 election cycle.
Posting to X in August of that year, 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 revealed she was voting for the Democrats by posting a photo holding a plate of custom cookies decorated with the Biden/Harris campaign logo. She also told her followers 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.
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.
