Taylor Swift has thrown her support behind Kamala Harris as the next US president, ending months of speculation about who the world’s biggest pop star might endorse by commending the Democratic candidate as “a steady-handed, gifted leader”.
“I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift posted on Instagram, moments after the presidential debate between the vice-president and her Republican rival Donald Trump finished on Tuesday night.
Swift said Trump’s recent sharing of a social media post falsely claiming she had endorsed him had spurred her to go public with her voting intentions. “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,” she said.
Swift signed the post: “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady”, alluding to comments by JD Vance, Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, that America was run by “childless cat ladies”.
The 34-year-old singer has three cats and no children. She endorsed President Joe Biden and Harris in 2020, and publicly backed the Democratic candidate in the Tennessee Senate race in 2018. On Tuesday she shared details of how her fans could register to vote on her Instagram page, where she has 283mn followers.
Harris has drawn support from other big celebrities, including Beyoncé, who approved the use of her song “Freedom” in advertisements and rallies, making it an unofficial campaign song. Beyoncé sent a cease-and-desist request to the Trump campaign after he posted a video using “Freedom”, according to Rolling Stone.
Swift is among the most popular musicians in history and an American cultural icon, making her a target of rightwing conspiracy theories, including claims that she was part of a plot to keep Biden in the White House. Last month, Swift was forced to cancel three concerts in Austria after authorities uncovered an Islamist terror plot to attack her fans at the show.
Earlier in her career, Swift stayed silent on politics — a tradition in Nashville’s country music industry, where she built her career.
But she later expressed regret about not speaking out against Trump in 2016. “I need to be on the right side of history,” she told her father in a 2020 Netflix documentary.
Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, welcomed the endorsement from his “fellow cat owner”, saying on MSNBC that Swift’s post was “eloquent” as he encouraged her fans to join the Harris campaign.
Trump on Wednesday morning said he was “not a Taylor Swift fan”.
“She’s a very liberal person, she seems to always endorse a Democrat and she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace”, he said in an interview with Fox News.
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Arlington, Virginia