Taylor Swift fans are not waiting for the pop star to endorse a candidate in this presidential election.
Over 20,000 Swifties joined a Zoom webinar kickoff call with Swifties for Kamala Tuesday night and raised over $122,000 for Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz campaign with the likes of other big-name fans like Representatives Becca Balint and Chris Deluzio, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and Carole King.
“First of all, I am a Swiftie,” King said, adding that Swift is her “music granddaughter. “I also want to say that I’m excited about Kamala because so many people are excited about Kamala.”
King, however, focused on the Swifties on the call, encouraging them to make the phone calls and knock on people’s doors to support Vice President Kamala Harris. She said to look to “build a bridge” and listen to the people on the other end.
“There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain,” King said, ending her talk by singing some of Swift’s song “Shake it Off.”
Warren shared that her favorite song is “Karma.” She told the Swifties that they “can get this done.”
“You are resilient, and you know how to take on bullies and you know how to be the most authentic versions of yourselves,” Warren said. “That’s what the Kamala Harris campaign is all about. It’s about standing up in the face of bullies like Donald Trump.”
Warren’s Massachusetts peer, Markey, who had help from the Swifties for his re-election in 2020, talked about Swift’s song “Snow on the Beach” and the real effects New England is facing with climate change.
“We have a lot of work around us to beat this anti-hero wanna-be, or as I like to call him ‘Mr. Casually Cool,’ Markey said. “As Taylor Swift said, ‘I never trust a narcist’….The Swifties are the leaders this election.'”
Gillibrand shared that she has seen Swift twice in concert. She shared a lot of jokes, like how “Karma is a relaxing thought, but for Donald Trump, it’s not.”
Her favorite album is Fearless, because “it’s important that we as single cat women and we as independent women” are able to understand and go through similar challenges as Swift. She said this is especially true now, as former President Donald Trump’s second term would put female reproductive rights even further at stake.
“I also believe Swifties can be a huge part of this campaign because no one organizes like Swifties,” Gillibrand said. “Volunteer as advocates. Volunteer as content creators. Volunteer as a person who just nudges people to vote. It’s very important that we don’t leave space for people to just stay home.”
Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
The group got its start immediately after President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election. Emerald Medrano, a 22-year-old Swiftie from Texas, decided to take action.
“Contrary to popular belief, this is not one 13-year-old girl running a Twitter profile,” co-founder Irene Kim joked on the Swifties call Tuesday.
I feel like us U.S swifties should mass organize and help campaign for Kamala Harris and spread how horrendous project 2025 would be to help get people’s butts down to the polls in November 😭 like if we don’t want democracy to end we really need to move and push blue votes
— 🪩 eME!rald 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🍉 iso eras tour tickets (@hushmirrorball) July 21, 2024
“I feel like us U.S. swifties should mass organize and help campaign for Kamala Harris and spread how horrendous Project 2025 would be to help get people’s butts down to the polls in November,” he posted.
The same day, the coalition started. Within a week, Swifties for Kamala had tens of thousands of followers on social media—the Swifties 4 Kamala TikTok account has almost 122,000 followers now.
“This movement really started for me in a moment of anxiety, a moment when I felt like I needed to become the cheer captain and not just on the bleachers. It was a time when all of my fears about our country and our democracy just built up and I knew I needed to speak now,” Medrano said in the Tuesday night call. “For me, Kamala is really a relaxing thought as a candidate. She will be a president who cares about people deeply and who fights for their rights.”
Medrano shared that as a Latinx, queer and transgender person, Harris makes him feel safe.
The Swifties for Kamala substack has resources for people to become poll workers, learn “what’s at stake” with Project 2025 and sign up for phone banking. It has posted about reproductive freedom, the child tax, LGBTQ+ rights and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Balint shared in the Zoom call that she too, as a queer woman, is “the only one of me and, baby, that’s the fun of me.”
“The rest of the world is in black and white, but we Swifties are in screaming color,” Balint said. “We’ve got no reason to be afraid, Swifties. We can face this.”
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