Our world’s best known “childless cat lady” has spoken: Taylor Swift is officially endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential election, urging her followers to register to vote.
The long-awaited endorsement came just minutes after Harris’ debate against Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump concluded.
While the international pop superstar rarely, if ever, makes political statements, Swift made the announcement in an Instagram post in order to curb misinformation that has already taken place on how she will be voting.
“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most,” Swift wrote.
“As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”
Last month, AI-generated images were circulated online, falsely indicating that Swift had endorsed Donald Trump.
Trump reshared the deep fake images on his social media platform Truth Social – including Taylor Swift dressed as Uncle Sam with the headline “Taylor Wants You to Vote for Donald Trump”, as well as young women wearing shirts that read “Swifties for Trump”.
The former president wrote “I accept” in his post, implying Swift had given her endorsement to Trump.
In her recent Instagram post, Swift said the incident “conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation”.
“It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter,” Swift said.
“The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
The truth being this: that Taylor Swift is casting her 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,” Swift said.
“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.”
Swift also said she was “heartened and impressed” by Harris’ choice of Tim Walz as the Democratic nominee for Vice President, especially for his stance on LGBTQIA+ rights, IVF and women’s reproductive rights.
Swift reminded her followers to register to vote and to consider voting early. She said she would be posting more information on voting on her Instagram story.
“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make,” she wrote.
“With love and hope, Taylor Swift. Childless Cat Lady.”
‘The right side of history’
In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, Swift publicly endorsed Joe Biden.
Previously, Swift was known for keeping her politics to herself and very rarely demonstrated any political leaning in her art and in her presence in the public eye. In fact, she has expressed regret for not making her politics clearer before the 2016 election, where Donald Trump was voted as President of the US.
Her 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana includes footage of moments before she made the endorsement for Democrat Senator Phil Bredesen in the 2018 midterm election. She expressed her need to be on “the right side of history”.
Swift was particularly opposed to Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn – who ran against Democrat Senator Bredesen and ultimately won – based on her extreme right-wing views against women and the LGBTQIA+ community.
“She votes against fair pay for women. She votes against reauthorisation of the violence against women act, which is just basically protecting us from domestic abuse and stalking,” Swift said in the footage on Miss Americana.
“She thinks that if you’re a gay couple or even if you look like a gay couple you should be allowed to be kicked out of a restaurant.
“I can’t see another commercial [with] her disguising these policies behind the words ‘Tennessee Christian values. Those aren’t Tennessee Christian values’. I live in Tennessee. I am Christian. That’s not what we stand for.”
Featured Image – Credit: @inezandvinoodh