Pop music sensation Taylor Swift, widely considered one of the world’s most influential celebrities, endorsed Kamala Harris for president after Tuesday night’s debate.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Taylor said in an Instagram post featuring her with one of her cats.
She signed her lengthy post as “Childless Cat Lady” ― a biting reference to Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s now widely-mocked remarks disparaging Democratic women who don’t have children.
Taylor, once known for her aversion to speaking out about politics, praised Harris as someone who “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them”.
“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,” her post continued.
She also praised Harris’ selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, praising him as someone “who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades”.
Taylor posted her endorsement minutes after Harris’ presidential debate with Republican nominee Donald Trump ended on Tuesday night on ABC News.
Questions about a potential endorsement from the 14-time Grammy Award winner have swirled for months, especially after Trump shared AI-generated images of women wearing “Swifties for Trump” tees. When Taylor’s team didn’t condemn his posts, fans and critics alike speculated that the Grammy winner would stay silent this election.
She finally addressed that scandal in her endorsement.
“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote. “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.”
Taylor’s endorsement comes days after she caught flak for photos of her embracing Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, whom Trump has praised for her support of him. Taylor’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, also plays for the Chiefs.
Harris hasn’t said anything about Taylor’s endorsement yet, but according to a CBS reporter, she walked out of her post-debate party to the Anti-Hero singer’s feminist anthem The Man.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was the one to break the news to Walz live on air, reading out Taylor’s entire post to him as he smiled and clutched his chest.
“I am incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift. I say that as a fellow cat owner,” Walz responded.
As for Trump, when asked by Fox News reporters for his reaction to the Taylor Swift endorsement, he responded: “I have no idea.”
Taylor previously endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 US election.