The Swifties Have Organized

Taylor Swift has yet to endorse a presidential candidate. But on Tuesday night, Swifties raised over $100,000 for Kamala Harris during a virtual rally that included Carole King and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

By Lauren Tousignant  |  August 28, 2024 | 2:59pm
Photo: Getty Images CelebritiesPolitics Taylor Swift
The Swifties Have Organized

Swifties might have a…reputation…for being one of the more obsessive and cult-like fan bases in the pop star universe. And that may be true, but when you spend close to two decades pouring over every single song lyric and closely inspecting Instagram photos in case Taylor Swift included a tiny Easter egg hinting at when she’ll drop her 22nd studio album or what she’ll be doing in 2031 (because 31 backward is 13…), you’ll inevitably develop some useful skills, such as time management, attention to detail, and high-level organizational abilities.

Swift herself has yet to endorse a presidential candidate (though she endorsed Joe Biden in 2020), but a group of Swifties have put their hard-fought organizing skills to good use and are rallying behind Kamala Harris. Swifties for Kamala launched hours after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July, and has since amassed more than 250 million followers across social media platforms.

On Tuesday night, the grassroots group held their first two-hour virtual rally, which included appearances from Carole King, and senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand. Over 38,000 Swifties joined the call, raising over $122,000 for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign—an amount that’s since increased to $150,000, according to NPR.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), and the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party Anderson Clayton also joined Tuesday night’s call. Each speaker reportedly shared their favorite Swift song (Markey said his favorite is “Snow on the Beach), and made a call to action or shared their experience with canvassing or mobilizing voters. Swift, who has no affiliation with the group, did not join the call.  Irene Kim, one of the group’s co-founders, told CNN she hoped Harris or Walz might join, but they didn’t. Guess they weren’t…ready for it. (Sorry.)

“You are resilient, and you know how to take on bullies and you know how to be your most authentic, most joyful selves,” Warren said on the call, after revealing her favorite Swift songs are the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” and “Karma.” “You come together hand-in-hand, friendship bracelets on your wrist, and you overcome pretty much anything that life throws at you. And that is what the Kamala Harris campaign is all about. It’s about standing up for what is right in the face of bullies, like Donald Trump.”

King then introduced herself as the self-proclaimed “original cat lady,” said Swift was her “musical and songwriting granddaughter,” and rapped the chorus to “Shake It Off.”

“I’m excited about Kamala, because so many people are excited about Kamala,” King said after her short performance. “I have admired her, the idea that this happened, and the stars lined up, and Joe Biden did a really gracious, hard thing to do, and I’m so proud of him … But this is about you. This call is about you.”

“I’ve been a political activist for years. I’ve been a volunteer, I’ve been a door knocker, even as a famous person,” King added. “I’m telling you all this because if any of you are thinking of volunteering to be door knockers or phone callers, but you’re a little nervous about what you might say, please believe me: there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Swifties for Harris is the latest niche (some might say cringe) coalition to make headlines for their impressive fundraising efforts. The growing list includes White Women for Harris, which raised over $2 million for the campaign in July, and White Dudes for Harris, which raised $4 million, also in July.

While Swift has been mum about the 2024 election, her political influence can’t be ignored. In 2018, she posted an Instagram endorsing two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee, Phil Bresden for Senate, and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives, writing “For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway.” In the 24 hours after she posted, Vote.org reported they received 65,000 new voter registrations.

Hopefully, Swift hasn’t said anything yet because she’s still waiting for a couple thousand Harris/Walz cookies to cool.

 
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