Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris For President Minutes After Debate
Updated with Gov. Walz response: Taylor Swift will cast her vote for Kamala Harris.
The singer songwriter posted on Instagram following the debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. It was a shot she took for Time Magazine‘s Person of the Year shoot featuring one of her cats.
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Swift revealed that she had watched the debate, and she encouraged her followers to research “topics that matter to you the most.”
She also addressed the fake AI endorsement of her supporting Trump.
“It brought up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she 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 simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
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Swift has been very vocal in the past about standing on the right side of history, and she expressed regret for not doing so earlier during the 2016 election in her Miss Americana documentary, which came out in 2020.
Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ first NFL game where she was not seen with Brittany Mahomes, wife of her boyfriend Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s teammate Patrick Mahomes, speculation heated up around whether they were on the outs. Swift’s embracing of Mahomes at the New York United States Open brought the discourse to a fever pitch as various fans called on Swift to speak out and make an endorsement.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” she continued. “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-headed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
The Tortured Poets Department author also praised Harris’ selection of Tim Walz as her running mate because he has “been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Walz responded to Swift’s endorsement and thanked her.
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“I am incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift and I say that as a fellow cat owner. That was eloquent and that was clear and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up,” Walz said after Rachel Maddow read him Swift’s Instagram post. “We’ve seen it out of those Republicans who were at the DNC. We’ve seen it out of women who would like to have their personal lives kept personal but are forced to go out there because they nearly died because they can’t get abortion services in a pregnancy. And now you have somebody like Taylor Swift coming out making that very clear. This would be the opportunity, Swifties: KamalaHarris.com, get on over there, get things going.”
Ahead of the 2020 election between Trump and President Joe Biden, Swift tweeted a photo of herself with cookies that said “Biden 2020” on them, endorsing Biden and promising to support Harris “by yelling at the tv a lot.”
“I’ve done my research and I’ve made my choice,” Swift concluded. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to my first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.”
In her signature style of weaving in some sort of lyrical reference, Swift signed the post “Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady,” which refers to JD Vance’s reference to Democratic women early on when Trump selected him as his running mate.
At the presidential debate in Philadelphia, news of the Harris endorsement spread through the spin room.
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Michael Tyler, spokesman for the Harris campaign, said, “We’re incredibly grateful for her lending her hand toward this campaign. Obviously, she’s incredibly influential. Millions of followers across social media. And what I also think she represents is the growing diversity of the Harris-Walz coalition.”
Asked if he hoped that she would be on the campaign trail for Harris, he said, “We certainly appreciate her raising her voice tonight, and we look forward doing whatever she deems appropriate.”
David Bossie, a surrogate for the Trump campaign, was asked about the endorsement and said, “Don’t care.”
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“The American people are very smart, and sure it’s interesting that celebrities endorse one person of another, but it doesn’t have an impact on people’s votes,” he said. “So we’ll see if this will be the first time in American history that it does.”
Stevie Nicks posted to social media echoing Swift’s sentiment and encouraging her followers to research and vote. She signed her post, “Childless Dog Lady.” Ellen DeGeneres reposted Swift’s post on Instagram, writing “This childless cat lady couldn’t agree more.”
— Ted Johnson contributed to this report.
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