Taylor Swift said Tuesday night that she plans to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in November, adding that she wanted to clear the air after former President Trump suggested that she might support the Republican ticket.
In an Instagram post minutes after the debate between Harris and Trump ended, Swift said she was voting for Harris because “she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
“We can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote. She said she was “so heartened and impressed” that Harris chose Walz as her running mate, “who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Swift’s post comes several weeks after Trump shared images, created using artificial intelligence, that suggested that Swift had endorsed him and that her fans could help him win in November.
One image posted to Trump’s social media network, Truth Social, showed a group of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” shirts. Another showed Swift dressed up as Uncle Sam, with the headline: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”
The images were shared by a social media influencer and re-shared by Trump, who added: “I accept.”
“It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote of the images. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
Swift, 34, wrote in her message that “your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”
“If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most,” Swift wrote. “As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”
Swift posted her message alongside a photo from her Time magazine “Person of the Year” shoot, holding her youngest cat, Benjamin Button, against her shoulder. She signed her post: “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”
Her sign-off was a not-so-subtle nod to Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who once derided Harris and other Democratic leaders as “childless cat ladies.”
“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Vance told Fox News’ then-host Tucker Carlson in 2021. “It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
Walz learned about the endorsement while on the air with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. He beamed and pressed his hand to his heart as Maddow read the post aloud.
“I am incredibly grateful, first of all, to Taylor Swift,” Walz said. “I say that also as a cat owner, a fellow cat owner. That was eloquent, and it was clear, and that’s the type of courage we need in America.”
Swift has deep ties to Pennsylvania, which was mentioned repeatedly during Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia. She grew up midway between Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, is the brother of Jason Kelce, a former center for the Philadelphia Eagles.
