The strategic way Taylor Swift shut down fan backlash, endorsed Kamala Harris, and won

The campaign’s preparation makes sense. Swift’s eventual endorsement of Harris had been likely all along. After all, she voted for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden; she publicly celebrated when Biden picked Harris as his running mate four years ago; she has repeatedly condemned homophobic and racist policies from the Republican Party. Swift has made her allegiance clear.

What wasn’t clear was just how long she expected us to wait without making a fuss.

It’s quite possible that Swift had always planned to share her endorsement last night, syncing it with the debate for maximum attention and impact. This would align with Swift’s reputation as a canny strategist.

Still, Swift’s long-awaited endorsement arrived amid a surge of backlash this week, which seems equally instructive. Swift is known to plan ahead and choose her words carefully, but she’s also known to keep her finger on the pulse, especially in regards to the wants and requests of her dedicated fans. “I cyber-stalk because I care,” she once tweeted.

The recent feedback from her fans — particularly those who have already rallied around Harris and Walz — may have inspired Swift to share her endorsement sooner rather than later. (A representative for Swift didn’t respond to a request for comment from BI.)

Swift had already set the precedent for a last-minute declaration of loyalty, widely known in politics as an “October surprise.” Swift didn’t officially endorse Biden until October 7, less than one month before the 2020 election.

However, by the time she made a batch of Biden/Harris cookies (literally), she had publicly criticized Trump several times, calling him a gaslighter, a cheater, and an aspiring autocrat. “We will vote you out in November,” she vowed in May 2020.

By contrast, before last night, Swift had said very little about this year’s presidential race. The previous three times she encouraged fans to vote, she didn’t say who to vote for.

True, Swift has been very busy over the past year, performing all over the world — and the staggering, stadium-packing success of the Eras Tour has added a new layer of risk to Swift’s public statements. She already had a history of being stalked and living in fear of violence at her concerts. In August, police foiled a terrorist attack planned for her tour stop in Vienna, causing all three shows to be canceled.

“I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” Swift reflected on Instagram.

Nevertheless, Swift’s lack of political engagement during this election year also left the door wide open for ambiguity and distortion; the most cynical fans feared that Swift had shed her liberal beliefs. It allowed seemingly minor decisions — like publicly hugging her boyfriend’s teammate’s wife, Brittany Mahomes, a noted Donald Trump supporter, at the US Open on Sunday — to become vehicles for guesswork and speculation. As Swift herself said in her endorsement post, “The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.” By the same logic, the easiest way to be misunderstood is to be silent.

Swift has surely grown used to criticism. She can (and should) disregard the worst of it; a good chunk of her detractors are misguided or misogynistic. Sometimes, even her loving fans go too far, convinced they know what’s best for her in her private life. The reaction to the Mahomes incident didn’t fit those descriptions; it was the kind of constructive criticism that celebrities should be open to receiving.

Swift could’ve waited until October to endorse Harris, as she did with Biden in 2020. Some fans believed she’d wait until the Eras Tour had completed all US shows, which would’ve given her just one full day to endorse Harris before the election on Nov. 5.

Swift’s endorsement still would’ve mattered, of course, though she almost certainly would’ve been criticized for waiting too long — and, importantly for someone as brand-conscious as Swift, the “will she won’t she” debate would’ve dominated her media coverage for another two months. For Swifties, the anticipation would’ve been torturous.

There are militant pockets of online fandom, full of people who insist it’s inappropriate to criticize celebrities. These are the people who said that Swift can “hug whoever she wants,” that she has no obligation to speak on politics, and that fans who expected more directness from Swift were “entitled.” But there’s a huge difference between good-faith critique and malicious hate or harassment.

Swifties don’t have the right to weigh in and demand access to every corner of Swift’s private life. They do have the right to expect that she’s true to her word.

Don’t forget that Swift green-lit an entire documentary in 2020 that flaunted her newfound commitment to advocacy. In it, she promised to be more politically engaged moving forward and to use her voice, platform, and extraordinary influence to defend the people most at risk in this country.

When fans saw that commitment wane in recent months, they spoke up. They did not ask for Swift to campaign, fundraise, or trade the Eras Tour stage for the DNC, but only for the bare minimum: to keep her promise. And so she did.