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Taylor Swift has made a rare political endorsement, telling the world that she will be voting for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the U.S. 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.” Find Swift’s full statement below.
Swift made her statement after tonight’s presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. It also arrives after months of speculation about whether she would formally throw her support behind a presidential candidate after choosing not to speak publicly during the 2016 and 2020 election cycles. In fact, Swift had endorsed specific candidates in only one previous instance: In 2018, she threw her support behind two Democratic candidates in Tennessee. (“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,” she wrote at the time.) Still, Swift has supported various causes and legislation, such as the Equality Act and the March for Our Lives.
In her statement tonight, Swift referenced Trump’s false claims that she had endorsed him for president. “Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site,” she wrote. “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 shared her endorsement on her Instagram account, where she has over 283 million followers. She pointedly posted her message with a photo of herself and one of her beloved cats. During tonight’s debate, Trump made false claims about immigrants in Ohio eating pet cats and dogs, and his Republican running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, has tried to denigrate Harris and other women by calling them “childless cat ladies.” Reclaiming the phrase, Swift, who has no children and several pet cats, signed her note, “Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady.”
According to The New York Times, Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, responded to Swift’s endorsement of Harris by calling it “more evidence that the Democrat party has become the party of the wealthy elite.”