Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris for president

Her endorsement — which she shared while on break from her record-shattering Eras Tour — marks her latest effort to vocalize her political beliefs after years of lying low.

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most. As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country,” she said in her post.

She added: “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she 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. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Before Swift voiced her support for this year’s Democratic presidential nominee, former president Donald Trump embraced a fake “Swifties for Trump” movement and Swift endorsement from a collage of artificial intelligence-generated images in August.

The AI photos Trump posted showed groups of young women smiling in “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts, and in one doctored photo, captioned “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump,” the AI version of Swift dons the singer’s signature red lipstick while wearing an Uncle Sam outfit and copying his famous finger point. But considering that Swift previously compared Trump’s presidency to an “autocracy” and accused him of “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism,” many of her fans weren’t fooled.

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site,” Swift said in her statement on Instagram. “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 about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

Swifties speculated — as they commonly do on her social media posts — about whether she was subtly supporting Harris earlier in August, after a photo she posted from an Eras Tour performance in Poland included a silhouette of a waving woman who looked like the vice president. But the resemblance in this case was a false alarm, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The shadow was a background singer.

While fans of the megastar didn’t correctly predict how the celebrity would use her influence to support Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her decision to issue an endorsement wasn’t a complete shock to those familiar with the performer’s recent political advocacy.

Swift announced in 2020 that she was voting for President Joe Biden and Harris, sharing a photo of her smiling while holding a plate of cookies customized with the then-Democratic ticket’s campaign logo.

“The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included,” she told V Magazine at the time. “Everyone deserves a government that takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of its people first. The only way we can begin to make things better is to choose leaders who are willing to face these issues and find ways to work through them.”

She’s also supported liberal causes, including LGBTQ+ rights and gun control, and has condemned racial injustice.

And during the 2018 midterm election season, she notably endorsed two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee, adding that she was appalled by Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and the Violence Against Women Act, which addresses domestic violence and stalking.

The Instagram post was a turning point for Swift, who had previously adhered to the “Shut up and sing” retort, encouraging voting but not siding with either major political party throughout her more than decade-long music career.

“I feel like at 22, it’s my right to vote, but it’s not my right to tell other people what to do,” she said in 2012 on the “The Late Show With David Letterman,” garnering audience applause and a fist bump from the show’s host.

But in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, while she was embroiled in the Ye beef and relationship drama that would inspire her “Reputation” era, she was criticized for shying away from supporting or condoning any of the candidates. Her lack of a political stance was so controversial at the time that a 2017 Instagram post — in which she said she “couldn’t have asked for a better year” — incited an online uproar.

As Swift weighed whether to post her 2018 statement, a conversation captured in the Netflix documentary “Miss Americana,” she said she regretted not speaking out against Trump during the election, and she decided she had no choice but to be politically vocal, against the wishes of her dad and management team.

“I’m saying right now that this is something that I know is right,” she said during the tense discussion. “I need to be on the right side of history.”