What impact could Taylor Swift really have on the US election?

October 2024
Noel Drake, a 29-year-old who lives in Utah, said she felt “very bleak” about politics before this year.

During the 2020 presidential election, she felt disillusioned entirely.

But Taylor Swift – and her fans – helped change her mind, she told me.

“With this sense of community that I have established through interacting with other Swifties online, it has really changed the way I interact with politics this election cycle,” she said.

After Swift endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris a month ago, Ms Drake started following a fan-led campaign group called “Swifties for Kamala”. The group is not officially affiliated with the Harris campaign, but does keep in regular touch with campaign staff.

Since interacting with other like-minded Swifties, Ms Drake has decided to get more involved in local campaigning in her home state.

The BBC has tracked down dozens of voters like Ms Drake, who say posts from Swift and her mega fans on social media have motivated them to go out and vote, or get involved in activism. But just because you’re a fan of Swift doesn’t mean you’re going to vote like her, I learned.

For the latest episode of BBC Radio 4’s Why Do You Hate Me USA, I’ve been investigating how one pop-inclined meme enthusiast Irene Kim – the co-founder of Swifties for Kamala – found herself transformed from superfan to political strategist. Have any of the tactics used by her and her fellow activists actually worked?

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Over the past month, I’ve messaged several accounts who like and comment on the Swifties for Kamala posts.

Although some people were already Democrat supporters, others weren’t so sure.

Take 27-year-old Destiny from South Carolina, who doesn’t want to share her surname. She said both her and her boyfriend are “not that political,” but that the Swifties for Kamala posts have helped support her reasoning for voting for the Democrats this election.

“I really want a woman president who has similar values to me. This is my first election that has pushed me to vote for this reason,” she said.

Even her boyfriend, whom she described as “moderately conservative”, has been swayed to vote for Harris, and she said it was in part inspired by her lobbying based on some Swifties for Kamala posts.