Taylor Swift has endorsed Kamala Harris to be the next president of the US, raising the question – will the pop star’s foray into the election help the Democratic Party’s chances?

Swift stole the headlines from Donald Trump and Harris with her endorsement of the Democratic nominee directly following the first US presidential debate on Wednesday.

Mirroring the 2020 presidential election, Swift endorsed Harris to her 283 million Instagram followers after the Vice President debated, declaring that she will vote for the Harris-Walz campaign.

“I am voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” she said.

“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.”

Swift said Harris’s selection of Tim Walz as her running mate, given his long-term support for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF and abortion rights for decades, “heartened and impressed” her.

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A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

“I also want to say, especially to first-time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered,” she said.

“I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.”

Swift signed off the post with “childless cat lady”, a clear dig at JD Vance, Trump’s selection for vice-president, who has criticised women who do not have children.

Will it matter?

David Smith, associate professor at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre, told The New Daily that the endorsement is unlikely to have a large impact because this time it is less of a surprise.

“Everyone was expecting it at some point,” Smith said.

Swift’s endorsement in 2020 for Joe Biden was a more culturally seismic event, given she had never publicly endorsed a presidential candidate.

However, her star has risen considerably since then. In 2020 she was wildly famous already, but her fame and fortune has soared since.

Lawrence O’Donnell, a prominent American MSNBC news anchor and commentator, called it the “most important celebrity endorsement that I ever seen”.

“The timing on it is absolutely exquisite, the wording of it is flawless,” he said.

“For someone who’s never been impressed by a celebrity endorsement, this is perfect and powerful.”

Senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre, Bruce Wolpe, told the ABC the endorsement was significant.

“She has 238 million Instagram followers,” Wolpe said. “I don’t know what the total population was of people in America who went to her concerts, but she could be worth a million or two million votes. That could really help decide the election. We will see.”

Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt labelled the endorsement as “more evidence that the Democrat party has become the party of the wealthy elite.”

Swifties for Kamala, a group that Swift is not affiliated with, said it was “thrilled” with their hero’s endorsement.

“Our coalition has amassed more than 3500 active volunteers, gained over 250,000 social media followers, raised over $150,000 for the Harris campaign, and has mobilised over 90,000 people to take action to check their voter registration,” the group said in a statement.

The timing of the endorsement is no coincidence: When Swift endorsed Biden and Harris in 2020, she publicly supported the ticket for the first time on the day Harris debated Mike Pence in October 2020.

“So apt that it’s come out on the night of the VP debate,” Swift said to her Instagram followers.

“Gonna be watching and supporting @KamalaHarris by yelling at the TV a lot.”

Her first political endorsement was of Phil Bredesen, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee governor, in 2018.

The post does, however, promote the Harris-Walz campaign to the 14th biggest social media platform globally.

The pop superstar has 283 million followers on Instagram, 32.8 million on TikTok and 95.2 million on X.

When Swift endorsed Biden, it resulted in 35,000 new voter sign-ups, according to a non-partisan voting group.

The reaction

Walz, in an interview with MSNBC, said that he was immensely grateful to Taylor Swift, particularly because he is “a fellow cat owner”.

“That was eloquent and it was clear, and that is the type of courage we need in America,” he said.

“We’ve seen it in the 200 Republicans who were at the DNC, we’ve seen it from women who’d like to have their own personal lives kept personal … and now we have someone like Taylor Swift making that very clear.”

Trump was reportedly asked about Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris directly after the debate, but was caught unaware and responded with “I have no idea”.