Taylor Swift is making her voice heard, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election race.
The singer, 34, took to social media just moments after Harris and former President Donald Trump’s presidential debate, which aired on Tuesday, September 10, confirming her stance.
“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 via Instagram. “As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”
She continued, “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. 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.”
Swift then put her endorsement for Harris on the record.
“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,” Swift wrote. “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. I was so 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.”
Swift further detailed how she’d “done her research” in order to make her choice, before urging first-time voters to register to vote.
She then signed her post off, “With love and hope, Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady.”
Harris, 59, will compete against former President Trump, the Republican nominee, in the November 5 election. President Joe Biden initially campaigned for reelection, but amid concerns about his age, he dropped out of the race in July and endorsed his vice president as the Democratic nominee.
Swift previously endorsed Biden, 81, in the 2020 presidential election, explaining to V Magazine that October, “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.”
Taylor Swift Through the Years
Swift also threw her support behind Harris at the time. “So apt that it’s come out on the night of the VP debate,” she wrote of her endorsement via social media at the time. “Gonna be watching and supporting @KamalaHarris by yelling at the tv a lot.”
After years of publicly avoiding politics, Swift spoke out for the first time in 2018 as the midterm elections approached.
“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” she wrote via Instagram that October. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country.”
Meghan Markle and More Stars Voting on Election Day Through the Years
In Swift’s 2020 documentary, Miss Americana, fans saw a behind-the-scenes conversation she had with her team about breaking her silence on the topic. “I need to be on the right side of history,” she told them before posting her statement.
Swift reflected on the decision in a January 2020 interview with Variety. “Every time I didn’t speak up about politics as a young person, I was applauded for it,” she told the outlet. “It was wild. I said, ‘I’m a 22-year-old girl — people don’t want to hear what I have to say about politics.’ And people would just be like, ‘Yeahhhhh!’”
She added: “This was a situation where, from a humanity perspective, and from what my moral compass was telling me I needed to do, I knew I was right, and I really didn’t care about repercussions.”
Since wading into politics, Swift has repeatedly encouraged her fans to register to vote. In September 2023, her Instagram message on the matter resulted in more than 35,000 registrations and a 1,226 percent jump in participation on Vote.org’s website.
