Taylor Swift is just months away from concluding her year-and-a-half long Eras Tour, which has shattered attendance records and become the highest grossing tour of all time.
She won the 2024 Grammy for Album of the Year and then quickly released her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which spent 14 weeks at No. 1. The international superstar was the top streamed artist on Spotify in 2023.
All that is to say, political analysts believe that a Taylor Swift endorsement matters a great deal. Just how powerful is her support?
According to a Newsweek poll conducted this spring, up to 22 percent of Biden’s supporters in 2020 would be more likely to vote for a Republican if Swift gave them the thumbs up. Conversely, 16 percent of Trump supporters would be more likely to vote for a Democrat candidate endorsed by Swift.
In fact, Swift’s endorsement is considered so valuable, that prior to dropping out of his reelection bid, Joe’s campaign was practically banking on her whipping up another batch of Biden-themed iced sugar cookies, as she did in 2020 revealing her choice for president.
The New York Times reported that campaign officials viewed Swift’s support as “the endorsement of their wildest dreams.”
But so far, Swift has declined to speak publicly on the election.
There is a “Swifties for Kamala” group, but it is not officially affiliated with the artist.
Instead, Swift has angered fans and political allies by giving her endorsement to a different embattled woman: Brittany Mahomes.
Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, has been a target of haters for years. NFL fans called her “annoying” for cheering too loudly at her husband’s games, criticizing the referees and allegedly being rude to stadium employees.
When Swift started dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, though, she and Brittany became fast friends.
It wasn’t until last week that Swift’s adoring fan base became furious with her new gal pal. Mahomes was caught ‘liking’ an Instagram post that listed Trump’s new policy platform for the Republican Party.
After all, supporting Trump is the cardinal sin for anyone even mildly famous.
Swifties demanded Taylor disavow or distance herself from Mahomes and, at first, it seemed she was caving. At the Chiefs season opener against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night, Swift and Mahomes sat apart from one another in separate suites. However, the Daily Mail was told exclusively that the pair celebrated together after the game.
And just a few days later, the BFFs were spotted smiling and embracing next to their respective beaus at the US Open.
Swifties immediately started melting down.
“I have genuinely never been so disgusted in Taylor,” one fan tweeted. “Her spineless ass needs to stop this shit now.”
Another asserted that Swift is “revealing herself to be the spineless b**** she condemns in her music.”
As much as I find myself annoyed by Swift’s seeming inability to mature past the age she got famous and her incessant desire to play the victim, I have to give her credit for standing by her friend. In our current toxic political culture, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a celebrity be buddies with someone on the other side of the political spectrum.
Sorry, woke mob, but it’s actually healthy to have relationships with people you disagree with.
While the Biden administration encouraged us to argue with our “crazy MAGA” family members at Thanksgiving last year, Swift is reminding everyone that it used to be normal for relationships to be bigger than politics.
It is understandable why her fans are confused and angry.
Swift made a big show of ‘coming out’ politically in her documentary Miss Americana. In the film, she argues with her dad about supporting Democrats and ultimately decides she needs to be on the “right side of history.” In the 2018 midterms, Swift endorsed Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper. In 2020, she accused Trump of “stoking the fires of white supremacy” and endorsed his rival, Joe Biden.
Contrary to popular opinion, though, Swift’s big political reveal didn’t affect much. Bredesen lost to Marsha Blackburn and Biden was already polling ahead of Trump before Swift endorsed him in 2020.
Swifties might feel like their feminist queen pulled a bait-and-switch. But it’s been four years since Swift last spoke out and she is fresh out of a six-year-long relationship. Surely her views have changed somewhat. Or, at the very least, she no longer makes politics such an important part of her life.
Fans were similarly angry when Swift chose not to respond to Trump posting an AI image suggesting she has endorsed him last month. She also said nothing when her boyfriend Travis called his teammate Harrison Butker a “great person” as liberal women raged over the kicker’s graduation speech at a conservative Catholic college.
Swift threw a birthday party for fellow actress Blake Lively amid backlash over a resurfaced clip of Lively being unkind during a tense interview.
Taylor has made clear, however, that she is no longer interested in being bossed around by her fans or her parents. In her latest album, she refers to people who make demands of her as “judgmental creeps” who are “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see.”
In short, buzz off, losers.
By standing by Mahomes, Swift has finally done something truly worthy of our respect. But sadly, in today’s world, you don’t always get rewarded for doing the right thing.
Even if Swift ultimately endorses Harris, it’s unlikely her young, liberal fan base will forget that she dared to hug a Republican.