Who Do Voters Really Like? Taylor Swift. (original) (raw)
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The pop star Taylor Swift has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris — and is far more popular among Democrats and independents than Republicans.
Taylor Swift’s Favorability Among Likely Voters
Sept. 19, 2024Updated 2:34 p.m. ET
If you think about it, Taylor Swift has been on the trail — in the form of her Eras concert tour, which began in March 2023 — for about as long as a typical presidential candidate who goes the distance. She has been to more than a dozen states and performed before hundreds of thousands of people. She even went to the Super Bowl.
But that is not why The New York Times tested Ms. Swift’s “favorable rating” in its latest presidential poll, among likely voters nationally.
Last week, Ms. Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid for the presidency, following months of speculation, creating a frenzy of news coverage and analysis of her potential impact on the campaign.
According to a New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College poll, which was conducted Sept. 11 to 16 — after the debate and Ms. Swift’s endorsement, which immediately followed —44 percent of likely voters nationally have favorable views of the star musician, while 34 percent have unfavorable views of her.
Ms. Swift posted her endorsement on Instagram, writing that she was supporting Ms. 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.”
The Times has never polled voters about Ms. Swift before, but it appears that her decision has quickly divided Americans along partisan lines. Among Democrats, 70 percent view her favorably, compared with 23 percent of Republicans.
Among those with an unfavorable view, of course, is former President Donald J. Trump, who, over the weekend, wrote in a post on Truth Social: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
It’s worth wondering whether a well-selected lyric — say, “And it would’ve been sweet, if it could’ve been me” — from Trump might have elicited at least some sympathy from Swifties, who, through her songs, are intimately familiar with heartbreak and rejection.
According to the Times/Inquirer/Siena poll, 47 percent of voters view Mr. Trump favorably, while 51 percent view him unfavorably. Ms. Harris is viewed favorably by 48 percent of voters and unfavorably by 49 percent.
In the weeks before Ms. Swift’s endorsement, Mr. Trump shared false memes online, generated by A.I., suggesting that she had endorsed him. Ms. Swift referred to such misinformation in her endorsement last week: “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.”
Of those surveyed in the poll, another 22 percent said they did not know how they felt about Ms. Swift, declined to say how they felt about her, or did not know who Ms. Swift was. These voters were — as should surprise no one — especially likely to be older than 65 and male.
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