OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign desperately hopes that Taylor Swift’s endorsement will help her, as there’s been an “underperformance” among young voters.
On Thursday, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten emphasized data from many national surveys indicating that, among voters in the 18–29 age range, President Joe Biden had a 28-point lead in September 2020.
Before Biden abandoned his reelection campaign in July of this year, the president was ahead by seven points. When Harris is at the top of the ticket in September, the gap has widened to a 15-point advantage.
“Kamala Harris will absolutely welcome in the support of Taylor Swift if she can move young voters at all because the bottom line is: Kamala Harris is in fact not doing as well among young voters as you might expect a Democrat to necessarily be doing based upon history,” Enten told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
Enten noted that one area in which Swift might really help Democrats is in encouraging people to register to vote, as this is another area in which they are having difficulty. The data reporter then looked at the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where the number of Democratic voters registering to vote has decreased when compared to the same period in 2020.
About 560,000 people registered as Democrats in Pennsylvania in September 2020, while about 415,000 people did the same in North Carolina. By September of this year, those figures had dropped to about 128,000 in North Carolina and 169,000 in Pennsylvania.
“The bottom line is Republicans have been doing a significantly better job of registering voters than Democrats have been doing over the last four years and getting folks to switch over from Democratic registration to Republican registration,” Enten said.
“Kamala Harris will definitely welcome the idea if Taylor Swift can bring in some more younger voters, Democratic-leaning voters in the electorate because the bottom line is Republicans have been doing a heck of a lot better job of registering voters than Democrats have over the last four years,” Enten said.
WATCH:
This CNN segment is absolutely devastating for Kamala.
Senior data reporter Harry Enten just showed an aggregate that has her running THIRTEEN points behind where Biden was in 2020 with young voters.
He then flips to voter registration data that shows Republicans in… pic.twitter.com/dQa9N9wUdf
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) September 12, 2024
Taylor Swift—who described herself as a “childless cat lady”—announced who she would be endorsing just minutes after the presidential debate on Tuesday night between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Swift, a global superstar who endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, announced via Instagram that she would be endorsing Harris.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift said in the post, adding that she’s voting for Harris “because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
Swift said Harris “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,” noting that she was “so heartened and impressed by her selection” of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate due to his support for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and “a woman’s right to her own body.”
Swift concluded her remarks by saying that she had done her homework and “made my choice,” adding that she had watched the debate on Tuesday night and encouraged her supporters to learn more about the candidates and problems.
“Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make,” Swift said.
The Taylor Swift endorsement has landed. pic.twitter.com/anCll8NR5z
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) September 11, 2024