Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris drives voters to visit vote.gov

Updated September 12, 2024 at 18:16 PM ET

Taylor Swift is entering her 2024 election era.

The mega pop star has thrown her support behind Vice President Harris, just under two months out from the election.

"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," she wrote in a post to her more than 280 million followers on Instagram.

Swift said she was alarmed by former President Donald Trump posting recent AI pictures on social media, falsely showing her endorsing him, and wanted to combat misinformation with the truth.

The pop star, who began publicly weighing in on politics ahead of the 2018 midterms, has a record of boosting civic participation by discussing politics online. Her past endorsements and statements, though infrequent, have prompted tens of thousands of people to register to vote.

Impact of endorsement

It’s unclear how big of an impact Swift’s support this year could have on Harris. But with the presidential race expected to be extremely close, an endorsement from Swift could boost enthusiasm from Democrats, especially as Harris’ campaign works to gain back support among young Americans.

Voters under 30 were a powerful voting bloc for President Biden in 2020, siding with him by a 24-point margin. But over the past year, they’ve soured on the outgoing president. Harris’ candidacy has prompted a renewed interest in voting among Gen Z and younger millennial voters, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, but Harris has yet to mirror 2020 numbers.

This target generation has known the country-turned-pop star for most of their lives. Her debut album, from fall 2006, is nearly the same age as an 18-year-old eligible voter today.

Few celebrity endorsements have made noticeable impacts in modern campaigns — with the potential exception of Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of former President Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential primary. Political experts have argued that celebrities can rally existing supporters but have minimal impact on persuading new voters. Winfrey endorsed Harris at the Democratic National Convention this year, but it’s unclear what impact her support will have on the general election.

Swift first weighed in on elections in 2018. The singer has since called out Trump during his presidency and endorsed Biden in 2020.

Trump responded in a Fox News interview Wednesday morning, declaring he is "not a Taylor Swift fan" and that "it was just a question of time" before she backed Harris because of her endorsement track record.

"You couldn’t possibly endorse [Joe] Biden, you look at Biden, you couldn’t possibly endorse him, but she’s a very liberal person, she seems to always endorse a Democrat," Trump said. "And she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace."

Voter registrations

Swift's political statements often accompany exhortations to vote. She again repeated her plea to supporters in her Harris endorsement on Tuesday: "Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered!"

In a separate Instagram story, Swift shared a link to Vote.gov, where individuals can find information on where to register to vote and update their voter registration. The website is an official government website and is run by the U.S. General Services Administration, GSA, an independent government agency.

In the 24-hour window that Swift's story was live on Instagram, a GSA spokesperson told NPR that there had been 405,999 visitors to the Vote.gov website via her unique link. That's more than 13 times more visitors than a typical day on the site, compared to the week leading up to Swift's post.

There were also spikes in individuals registering to vote, part of a greater upward trend voting experts have pointed out since Harris took over the Democratic ticket.

Vote.org, a separate voter group that provides registration information and guidance, told NPR that more than 52,000 people registered to vote from its platform, and more than 144,000 checked their registration status in the period shortly after Swift's endorsement on Tuesday night through midday Thursday.

That said, it's unclear how much of this engagement and online traction will translate to votes this fall.

Back in 2018, Vote.org reported 65,000 new voter registrations in 24 hours, when Swift endorsed two Democratic congressional candidates in her home state of Tennessee. That’s almost twice as many as the group saw on national voter registration day last year.

Despite that bump in registrations, both Tennessee candidates lost their races in the Republican state.

Some polling indicates a Swift endorsement could help people make up their minds. In a poll reported by Newsweek in May, a third of voters under 25 said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate Swift has endorsed.

Even before Swift made her endorsement, factions of her fanbase latched on to Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies,” rebranding them as a celebration of Swift, who is known for her love of cats.

Swift leaned into that perception by signing Tuesday's Instagram post "Childless Cat Lady."

Harris, meanwhile, appeared to cheekily nod to the endorsement as she walked off a debate watch party stage to Swift's hit "The Man" in Philadelphia Tuesday night — queued up to begin at the anthemic chorus:

"I'm so sick of running as fast as I can
Wondering if I'd get there quicker
If I was a man
And I'm so sick of them coming at me again
'Cause if I was a man
Then I'd be the man
I'd be the man
I'd be the man"

Also, within 20 minutes after Swift's endorsement, the campaign began selling Harris-Walz-themed friendship bracelets — a nod at the viral trend happening at the musician's concerts around the world.

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