“Kamala loves a Venn diagram, proper? So in a single circle, you’ve got acquired Swifties, who love Taylor, and within the different circle, you’ve got acquired individuals who love Kamala. Within the center, you might have us — you might have these individuals who help Taylor and help Kamala,” Lexa Hayes, the friendship bracelet coordinator of the brand new organizing group Swifties for Kamala, tells Mashable.
Hayes is one in every of many Taylor Swift followers who’ve joined Swifties for Kamala, a coalition of followers campaigning for presidential hopeful and present Vice President Kamala Harris that operates independently of Swift herself, who nonetheless has not supplied an endorsement of both candidate within the upcoming election. Born out of a tweet, the group takes benefit of Swift followers’ pre-existing ardour and on-line savvy and goals to make use of it to show the presidential election blue.
All the time all for politics, Hayes by no means knew tips on how to become involved, however Swifties for Kamala gave her an accessible, unintimidating introduction to the house. “It’s talented people that I already know and am comfortable with,” she mentioned of the group.
Behind the fixed Swift lyrical references, glittering 47s on their fingers, and friendship bracelets is a reliable group helmed by Swifties with skilled expertise engaged on campaigns. April Glick Pulito, the coalition’s political director, labored on the 2020 presidential election for the Wisconsin State Democratic social gathering and on the Georgia Senate race runoff in 2022. The group’s marketing campaign supervisor, Annie Wu Henry, is a digital and political strategist who was instrumental in Senator John Fetterman’s TikTok marketing campaign technique.
The Democratic Social gathering instantly embraced Swifties for Kamala. The group’s Aug. 27 Zoom rally featured audio system like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey, in addition to recording artist Carole King and members of the Home of Representatives. Indivisible, the group that led the run-of-show, back-end, and registration for different affinity teams for Harris, like White Girls Reply the Name, AAPI Communities for Harris, and Feminine Attorneys for Harris, equally supported Swifties for Kamala.
Leah Greenberg, the co-executive director of Indivisible, thinks Swifties for Kamala has a ton of potential — natural potential that does not come from outdoors organizations.
“We’ve been seeing this big surge of different affinity groups, interest groups, and communities coming together to support Vice President Harris, and we’ve been trying to be supportive wherever we can,” Greenberg instructed Mashable.
The Swifties for Kamala Zoom rally noticed an estimated 27,000 individuals and raised over $100,000 for the Harris marketing campaign. These usually are not insignificant numbers, however when in comparison with affinity teams politicians already enchantment to, like Win With Black Girls, Win With Black Males, White Girls Reply the Name, and White Dudes for Kamala, which raised $1.5 million, $1.3 million, $2 million, and $4.2 million, respectively, Swifties for Kamala solely made a fraction of the influence.
Fandom as an affinity group
Swifties for Kamala is much like different Zoom coalition calls in that they carry collectively giant, numerous teams of individuals with totally different lived experiences and points they’re voting round, coming collectively not essentially over coverage however for a person candidate.
Nonetheless, whereas different coalitions like White Girls Reply the Name and White Dudes for Kamala organized in response to their demographic’s position in and historical past of electing conservative and racist leaders, Swifties do not have as clear a lineage within the nation’s voting historical past. Some Swifties say they’ve organized in defiance of teams of males on the appropriate who belittle them. For others, it is a callback to their idol’s previous political stance.
For instance, a rallying level amongst Swifties for Kamala is a tweet from the Republican Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee. After Swift broke her political silence and got here out towards Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn in 2018, Huckabee wrote, “So @taylorswift13 has each proper to be political nevertheless it will not influence election until we enable 13 yr previous ladies to vote. Nonetheless with #MarshaBlackburn.”
After the Zoom rally, the Swifties for Kamala account quote-tweeted Huckabee, writing, “Guess who’s old enough to vote now.” It acquired 90,000 likes. One other fan quote tweeted it with, “This aged like milk because those 13 year old girls in 2018 can vote in this election. We smile and smile.” The publish garnered 14,000 likes. However “Swiftie” is not a political stance.
When requested about conservative Swifties, Glick Pulito alluded to their idol’s few outspoken moments, saying, “Once you get deep enough into this fandom and have watched Miss Americana…” — a reference to Swift’s 2020 documentary, implying that conservative followers aren’t true followers. Swift’s determination to speak about politics was a significant focus of the movie. It exhibits her, her father, and her group heatedly discussing her selection to return out in favor of Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate Bredesen. On the verge of tears, she expresses remorse over not utilizing her voice towards Trump in 2016. “I can’t change that…I need to be on the right side of history,” she mentioned within the documentary.
The dialog resulted in her first political endorsement, during which she referred to as on followers to help Bredesen in 2018 and referred to as his opponent, Blackburn, “Trump in a wig.” In 2020, a month earlier than the presidential election, she endorsed President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris in a V Journal article. She additionally posted a picture of herself holding Biden-Harris 2020 marketing campaign cookies to social media.
Mashable High Tales
For followers, her outspokenness was in keeping with the bigger messaging of her Lover period. The album featured the pro-LGBTQ rainbow anthem “You Need to Calm Down,” and her go at a feminist takedown of the male-dominated system, “The Man.”
Within the years since she’s uploaded a number of Instagram posts about Black Lives Matter, tweeted about her terror after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and inspired her followers to vote, leading to 35,000 new voter registrations.
“There are so many Swifties for Kamala because there’s a real inclusiveness [to Swift’s music]. Like all of Lover,” continued Glick Pulito. “Her art does not lend itself to putting people down or moving backward. Loving this artist who strives to continue to make the world better, who strives to create good art, and who strives to constantly show up for her fans and herself and her family and her community — I’m not surprised that so many Swifties are committed to building a better future.”
Swifties for Kamala outline their eight coverage stances as “equality, freedom, and safety,” with nods to widespread sense gun reform, reproductive freedom, and a “permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.” Submit Lover and Miss Americana, Swift’s picture aligned pretty nicely with these imprecise coverage areas.
The stress between Swifties for Kamala and Taylor Swift
Nonetheless, prior to now couple of years, Swift, together with her chart-topping albums, re-recordings, and The Eras Tour, has reached unprecedented ranges of stardom, giving her unprecedented attain to hundreds of thousands. However she has but to endorse Vice President Harris, a significant reckoning level amongst Swifties for Kamala.
Swifties for Kamala organizes over a private id marker, liking Swift, with no inherent political attachments. They’re additionally organizing round Swift, somebody who can connect herself to insurance policies and other people outdoors of Swifties for Kamala’s targets, additional complicating their group. Not like different interest-based affinity teams, like the general public transit-oriented Practice Lovers for Kamala, there is no obvious coverage the group can instantly agree on, and Swift’s current public actions do not essentially align with Harris’ marketing campaign.
For instance, final October, Swift formally reached billionaire standing and got here beneath hearth for her use of a non-public jet and its environmental influence. In the meantime, Swifties for Kamala lists “climate change is taken seriously” as one in every of their eight insurance policies. In a current public outing, Swift was photographed hugging Trump supporter Brittany Mahomes on the U.S. Open, a lot to the frustration of a lot of her followers.
“What would they need to get our vote? They don’t need to have a favorite Taylor Swift song, but it certainly helps,”
Swift’s life-style seems more and more inconsistent with the political change one may anticipate a digitally lively fan to need. However, as Henry reminded Mashable, “Swifties are not a monolith.”
The variety amongst followers calls into query the effectiveness of Swifties as a voting coalition, although. Not one of the organizers had particular concepts when pressed on how a politician may “court” the Swiftie vote as a part of their very own campaigns. They spoke in imprecise phrases, as believers in Vice President Harris at first. Not even the dissolution of monopolies, which might be used to rally the troops because it was a central rallying level for Swifties because of Ticketmaster’s fumbling of promoting Eras Tour tickets, was introduced up as a core tenant of Swiftie beliefs. Politicians in help of the group have been extra particular. Senator Warren introduced up taking over companies like Ticketmaster throughout the Zoom rally, and Senator Markey referenced the local weather disaster.
“What would they need to get our vote? They don’t need to have a favorite Taylor Swift song, but it certainly helps,” joked Glick Pulito.
Throughout their social media presence, on their web site, and on the Zoom rally, Swifties for Kamala repeats, “Not affiliated with Taylor Swift,” however she’s nonetheless their bonding power and inspiration.
“We’re not waiting for any one person anywhere to call people to action,” defined Henry. “So much of what the Swiftie community does happened organically and not because they were told you should be doing this thing.”
Hayes pointed to Swift’s aptly-titled third album Converse Now as a degree of inspiration. “[Swift] is this force in our lives that gives us confidence to be the people that we want to be and to fight for the change we want in the world. It’s not about getting her attention, but the community that we built and using that force for good,” she mentioned.
Is fandom the way forward for campaigning?
Regardless of the political stress between Swift and her followers, the group continues to be a glimpse into the potential way forward for fandom and politics. “One of the things that keeps [organizers] going is being in community with each other,” Greenberg mentioned of her work at Indivisible. “It’s only natural that a group of people — who are brought together by their passion for and excitement around Taylor Swift — are also sustaining their political work and weaving their political work together with their excitement and passion, as members of an incredibly engaged fan community.”
Equally, Henry instructed Mashable, “It’s potentially a blueprint for how we can mobilize and invest in other digital communities just as we do in geographical areas. We should be reaching out to online spaces because, for better or worse, people are more online and dependent on online spaces.”
For now, the group hopes to be current at Swift’s remaining U.S. tour dates in Florida, Louisiana, and Indiana earlier than the election. Lots of these are after the voter registration deadlines, so till then, Swifties for Kamala plans to deal with encouraging folks to vote. “We want to remind people that every vote counts, especially since she has an upcoming date in Florida,” mentioned Hayes.
The friendship bracelet coordinator can be set to launch her brainchild within the coming weeks, an effort often called the “You’re Not Alone, Kid Campaign.” Hayes says, “It’s basically a motivation campaign to remind people to get to the polls and to not let motivation wane.”
Hayes hopes to get volunteers in each state to make bracelets and place them round public areas in the neighborhood. Every bracelet may have a QR code that directs the scanner to the Swifties for Kamala web site, the place voter info is obtainable. On Oct. 13, the group plans to launch the marketing campaign to the general public by posting images of the hidden bracelets to its social media accounts. It’s going to observe the place the bracelets are discovered.
“Getting a beer with a political candidate is a little outdated,” Glick Pulito mentioned. Now, it is about memes. It is about viral posts. It is about harnessing the ability of the web, as Swifities for Kamala does so nicely. “It makes [politics] more accessible, and the more accessible you make it, the more people are gonna engage with it.”
Prefer it or not, fandoms are a central a part of digital natives’ lives. Swifties for Kamala are harnessing that energy for the election—friendship bracelets and all. It would not matter who Swift endorses; look what she already made them do.
