Prior to the election in 2020, pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Before this Swift had not spoken much publicly about her political leanings and has since been more vocal about how she sees things. In her documentary, Miss Americana, she even spoke out against Donald Trump, regretting not doing back in the 2016 election as well. “I need to be on the right side of history,” she said “Dad, I need you to forgive me for doing it, because I’m doing it”.
Although Swift has yet to endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, many believe her endorsement could swing the election result. With this in mind, researchers recently conducted a study at a “large Midwestern university”, to see whether celebrity backing could change their vote.
Author professor of political science at Bowling Green State University David J. Jackson said, “Since I wrote my dissertation in the late 1990s on the topic, I have been fascinated by the relationships between entertainment media and political beliefs. Celebrity activity in politics is a natural offshoot of this interest”.
The control group that was used for this study showed that 46.9% of respondents disagreed with the idea that parents and teachers should have an equal say in selecting high school library books, which is the example they used. Of the control group that was told Taylor Swift endorsed it, only 39.9% disagreed with it.
“Respondents are less likely to disagree with a public policy position if Taylor Swift’s name is attached to the position. This suggests that celebrities can influence not just people’s candidate choices, but their policy positions as well,” says Jackson.
So, while Taylor Swift does have a massive and extremely loyal following, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll only vote the way she does. With that said, with the quantity of Swifties in the United States that 7% difference that was found in this study has the chance to become a much larger number and be a big factor in some states if Swift does end up endorsing Harris.
