USA Instagram post: Swift supports Harris in the election campaign
US superstar Taylor Swift has expressed her support for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in an Instagram post.
11.09.2024, 05:44
SDA
The post was published on the 34-year-old singer's account immediately after the end of the first TV duel between Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Initially, the post was not shared on any of the artist's other social media channels. There had been speculation for some time as to whether the pop star would speak out to express her support for Harris - and thus use her great influence with young people in the USA.
Swift wrote in the Instagram post that she had been watching the televised debate between Harris and Trump. It was a good time to find out about the candidates' respective positions. She will be voting for Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the upcoming presidential election, Swift announced. Referring to the Democrat, she wrote: "I think she is a level-headed, gifted leader and believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos."
Support from a woman with enormous influence
Taylor Swift is something of a shining light in the USA. She produces hit after hit. She regularly breaks records at award ceremonies. Swift is hugely influential among her fans and has around 283 million followers on the Instagram platform. Swift recently came fifth on the Forbes list of the world's most influential women. In 2023, Time magazine named her Person of the Year. Swift's personal fortune is estimated at over one billion US dollars. In recent months, she has made headlines with her relationship with football player Travis Kelce.
The singer has a huge fan base. Around 53 percent of adults in the USA said they were Swift fans in a survey published in 2023. Swifties - as her fans call themselves - are considered extremely loyal. Like the artist herself, most of her fans in the USA come from suburbs or live in rural areas. Around half are female and millennials - in other words, like Swift, they were born between 1981 and 1996. Around three quarters are white. She therefore has influence over an important group of voters.
For Harris, support in the election campaign against Republican presidential candidate Trump could be decisive.
For years, Swift had carefully avoided taking a political stance. In 2018, however, she caused a stir when she positioned herself against the ultra-radical candidate for the US Senate, Marsha Blackburn, in Tennessee. Since then, Swift has repeatedly taken a political stance and urged her fans to vote - with success. After one such appeal by Swift on Instagram in September 2023 alone, 35,000 new voter registrations were counted in a very short space of time. Swift backed Joe Biden in 2020. At the time, she spoke out in favor of the Democrat relatively late in the election year.
