Does Taylor Swift support Kamala Harris? A look at her political history, new Easter eggs
Will Taylor Swift officially endorse Kamala Harris' presidential bid?
It's the question that has many Swifties — on both sides of the aisle — anticipating and following the performer's moves between now and the Nov. 5 election. The "Tortured Poets" singer has 13 Eras Tour shows left in Europe and nine in the United States before Election Day — and six of those concerts are in the swing states of Florida and Indiana.
Some fans believe the singer already indicated her approval of Harris during an Eras Tour concert in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday. In classic Swift style, one must decode a series of Easter eggs to get the potential message. The light-up wristbands handed out before the show lit up in red, white and blue when Swift — sporting a blue dress — played a mashup of her songs the "Last Great American Dynasty" and "Run."
The last line of her blended message was, "There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / She had a marvelous time ruining everything / So let’s run / Ruining everything / Darling, let’s run / Ruining everything / I had a marvelous time / And we’ll run / Ruining everything."
Although her team did not return a request for comment, it's common for the singer to fuse two of her songs into a final thought. During Pride Month, she sang the line "It's nice to have a friend of Dorothea" from her songs "It's Nice to Have a Friend" and "Dorothea." "A friend of Dorothy" is a euphemism for being a gay ally.
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Swifties for Harris, Swifties for Trump
"I hope that she will come out and endorse the Harris campaign," says TikTok influencer Jake Deyton. "I also think they need to do it strategically. If Taylor endorsed the campaign tomorrow, for instance, I think it would get swallowed by the news cycle before Election Day."
Deyton, 28, is backing the presumptive Democratic nominee. He's been a Swiftie since the starlet with curly blond hair and blue eyes released her debut album in 2006. He suggested in a TikTok video that Harris run her campaign similar to how Swift came back from a public cancellation with her sixth album, "Reputation."
"I was thinking how could the Democratic Party learn from Taylor's marketing skills," he says.
Deyton's video has been viewed 2.5 million times. One of the TikTok users who did a duet with the Deyton's post is Todrick Hall, a friend of Swift's who appeared in her music video for "You Need To Calm Down."
But not all Swifties agree.
"Taylor has a lot of power, and I think it's better if she empowers her fans to vote for whichever candidate aligns with their beliefs, values, opinions and morals," says Liz Smithson, a mother of two and content creator who runs the TikTok account MAGA Swifties. She, too, became a fan of the singer in 2006.
One of the first political videos Smithson, 39, posted to TikTok is the photo of Donald Trump following the assassination attempt with his fist in the air and the text, "If you wanted me de@d, you should have just said. Nothing makes me feel more alive. The scandal was contained. The bullet had just grazed."
The video has received 83,000 views and is set to the tune of Swift's song "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"
"The reaction has been very divisive," Smithson says. "I've received messages from girls saying, 'Oh my gosh, thank God someone else thinks like me.' They've felt unsafe and insecure. But people can also be mean. I've also been hated on because I'm a Republican. You can love Taylor and love Trump."
Swift's political voice has loudened
Swift's tone has amplified over the past 13 years. In 2012, she told Norwegian journalist Fredrik Skavlan why she didn't speak up about politics. "I just figure I'm a 22-year-old singer and I don't know if people really want to hear my political views," she said. "I think they just kind of want to hear me sing songs about breakups and feelings." The audience laughed, and the host moved on.
In her 2020 Netflix documentary, "Miss Americana," the singer gave insight into her political beliefs and endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., in the 2018 midterm elections. Her publicist Tree Paine warned her about Trump coming after her, and Swift quipped, "F*** that. I don't care. If I get bad press for saying, 'Don't put a homophobic racist in office,' then I get bad press for that."
Her father, Scott Swift, expressed safety concerns in one of the movie's heated exchanges.
"The bottom line right now: I'm terrified," he said. "I'm the guy that went out and bought armored cars."
The singer kicked the hinges off her political closet door and unequivocally spoke against Bredesen's opponent Marsha Blackburn, calling her "Trump in a wig." Swift posted on Instagram a photo of her and her mom, Andrea Swift, in front of a Bredesen sign with the caption: "These two Tennessee women voted for the candidate who has proven himself to be reasonable and trustworthy."
When the news broke of her support for Bredesen, Trump said he "liked Swift's music about 25% less now." Blackburn ultimately won the Senate seat.
Following the documentary, Swift posted on X, formerly Twitter, a series of political tweets, anti-Trump tweets and Harris retweets.
Four days after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, Swift tagged Trump in a post that read, "After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November."
She quote-tweeted a Harris post that read, "@JoeBiden can unify the American people because he's spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he'll build an America that lives up to our ideals. I'm honored to join him as our party's nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief."
A month out from the 2020 election, Swift posted a photo on Instagram of "Biden 2020" cookies she made encouraging voters to paint the election box blue.
"I spoke to @vmagazine about why I’ll be voting for Joe Biden for president," Swift wrote in the caption. "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."
Swift's last political tweet was in 2022 after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She quote-tweeted former first lady Michelle Obama and added: "I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are - that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that."
How much pull could Swift's endorsement have with her fan base?
Swift's power is massive among her diverse fan base. The singer has long encouraged Swifties to vote. In the fall of 2023, she helped get more than 30,000 voters registered in just one day. But how much weight could a bejeweled endorsement carry?
“There are many reasons why even the most influential celebrities — actors, athletes, artists — choose not to dive into politics, especially at a time of deep division," says Nancy Gibbs, the Edward R. Murrow Professor of the Practice of Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. "Their success and influence often depends on broad appeal, which they are naturally reluctant to put in jeopardy. That said, someone with the range and reach of Taylor Swift has enormous potential to influence this election should she so choose."
Gibbs adds one of the challenges facing Harris is reversing the movement of young voters away from the Democratic party, and an endorsement from the Eras Tour star could sway one in three young people getting their news from TikTok.
"She has enormous potential to deliver a message, including an endorsement, that could carry considerable weight with some of the voters that both parties need to attract and motivate," Gibbs says of Swift. "Influence is not the same as power; it’s more about faith than force, more a skill than a tool. She has shown she can wield it extremely effectively and shrewdly."
Some other female pop stars have thrown their support behind Harris in the past few days. On Wednesday, pop star Olivia Rodrigo showed support for the presumptive nominee, sharing a TikTok clip of Harris' first presidential campaign rally with four raised hand emojis. Singer Charli XCX lit social media on fire by declaring "kamala IS brat" on X. That's a compliment in Gen Z dialect. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter's mom, Tina Knowles, shared an Instagram post in support. And according to CNN, although Beyoncé has not publicly endorsed Harris, she did approve the campaign using her song "Freedom" during a visit to campaign headquarters.
Trump discusses Swift favorably
Trump complimented the singer's physical appearance in June.
CNN asked him about Swift and he replied, "I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful. I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she is very talented. I think she’s very beautiful, actually — unusually beautiful."
Time will tell whether Swift will weigh in on the 2024 election and how much of an impact she will make. Swift ended her 2020 documentary with original song "Only the Young." The political track about the youth vote includes the words, "It's just a matter of time / Up there's the finish line / Only the young / Can run." It's a message she's not yet sung on the Eras Tour.
The business mogul has to weigh the security of herself, her team and her fans as they attend the record-breaking tour in the United States in the fall. After the assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania, there is a heightened risk amid the politically discordant climate. She has a massive fandom to protect, a billion-dollar brand to steer and a political voice to bolster. Whether she makes an endorsement and how she speaks up will be like most things in the singer's life: on her terms.
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Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.