Kamala Harris received a welcome boost shortly after her televised debate with Donald Trump as pop sensation Taylor Swift finally revealed her long-anticipated endorsement of the Democratic candidate.

In the minutes after the testy debate, Swift took to Instagram with a message for her 283 million followers across the world.

“I’m voting for Kamala Harris 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, ” she wrote late on Tuesday (US time).

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”

Swift ended with a message to her followers of the importance of registering to vote. Late last year, her involvement in a US national voter registration day is credited for getting more than 35,000 Americans – many of them young – to vote in the November 5 election.

Swift’s endorsement of Harris follows a similar backing for Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020.

 

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Harris became the Democratic nominee in July after Biden announced he was stepping down from the presidential race.

In August, Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and potential vice president.

Swift mentioned Harris’s choice of Walz in her endorsement post.

“I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate Tim Walz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades,” Swift wrote.

Walz – who was apparently blindsided by the announcement during an interview with broadcaster MSNBC – responded in kind, describing Swift as “eloquent”.

“I am incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift and I say that as a fellow cat owner,” he said.

“That was eloquent and that was clear and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up.”

Swift signed off on her post by describing herself as a “childless cat lady,” a reference to a taunt used by Trump’s running mate JD Vance, to criticise Democrats and Harris in particular.

Swift’s fans, known as Swifties, had already mobilised their political support ahead of the singer’s announcement, forming a Swifties for Kamala community online shortly following Biden’s exit from the race .

The group, which has no direct affiliation with Swift, has thousands of followers on X and raised more than US$122,000 ($183,000) during a two-hour “kickoff” event last month.