Swifties for Kamala Is Mobilizing Taylor Swift Fans — Even if Taylor Herself Isn’t

Image

“As goes GM, so goes the nation”—that’s what people used to say about General Motors’ outsized influence on politics back in the ’50s (and ’60s and ’70s and ’80s and ’90s). But the golden age of automobile manufacturers is over, and the golden age of pop stars has arrived. In 2024, we might say, “As go the Swifties, so goes the election.”

At least, that’s what Swifties for Kamala (S4K) hope is true. Formed mere hours after President Biden announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential election and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Swifties for Kamala is a coalition of Taylor fans that’s racked up a quarter of a million followers across multiple social media platforms in less than a month.

Although she endorsed the Biden/Harris ticket back in 2020, Taylor Swift hasn’t yet said a single word about the 2024 election—and with a net worth of over $1 billion, the highest-grossing concert tour in history, a record-breaking four Album of the Year Grammys, and an army of fans who are frankly terrifying to get on the wrong side of (just ask Jake Gyllenhaal), Ms. Tortured Poets is one of the most powerful people in the country right now. An economist coined a word—“Swiftynomics”—to describe her influence on the worldwide economy, and a journalist invented a term—“the Taylor Swift effect”—when her first-ever political endorsements caused over 160,000 people to register to vote in 48 hours back in 2018.

But don’t get it twisted (in bedsheets): Swifties for Kamala isn’t trying to encourage Taylor Swift to endorse VP Harris. Although they’d be happy to see her throw her support behind their candidate, Taylor’s political participation (or lack thereof) is almost beside the point. Instead, S4K’s aim is to tap into the already existing, already powerful fan community to work together for a common goal: electing Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States. As senior communications director and cofounder Irene Kim, 29, tells Cosmo, “We’re not trying to make her do anything—we do not speak for Taylor. Our movement is about the power of our community and how we can mobilize together.” With S4K, the Swiftie fandom is operating independently from its star.

Read full article

Photo: Khadija Horton