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Poll: Taylor Swift Endorsement Of Kamala Harris May Backfire On Dems

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


After pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz last month, she appears to have cost herself some fans — a lot of them, in fact.

The New York Post noted that “a new post-debate poll from YouGov released Saturday found that 8% of voters said the pop superstar’s nod is either ‘somewhat’ or ‘much more likely’ to convince them to cast their ballot for the Democrat.”

However, a not inconsequential 20 percent of respondents indicated they are “somewhat” or “much less likely” to vote for former President Donald Trump’s opponent following Swift’s recent comments, the Post reported.

Meanwhile, the majority of respondents—66 percent—said her endorsement of Harris/Walz made no difference to them.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” the Grammy-winning artist shared in an Instagram post with her 283 million followers shortly after Tuesday night’s debate. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”

She claimed that Harris is “a steady-handed, gifted leader” who could lead with “calm and not chaos.”

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A small majority — 32% of the online poll’s respondents — said they believe Swift’s endorsement will have a positive effect on Harris’ campaign, while 27% said they don’t think it’ll have an impact one way or the other.

The Post added:

Forty-one percent — nearly 460 people — said the “Shake It Off” singer shouldn’t speak publicly about politics.

Thirty-eight percent said she should make public endorsements.

Sixty-six percent of the poll’s participants said they are not Swifties, while 28% reported being fans and 6% identified as big fans.

The majority of “big fans” were women, and registered Democrats.

Harris’s campaign desperately hopes that Swift’s endorsement will help her, as there’s been an “underperformance” among young voters, according to a new analysis of current polling data.

On Thursday, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten referenced information from several national surveys indicating that, among voters in the 18–29 age range, President Joe Biden had a 28-point lead in September 2020 over then-President Donald Trump. By July, when he dropped his reelection bid, his lead among that demographic had shrunk to just 7 points.

When he anointed Harris his successor, her lead increased to 15 points, which is still well behind Biden’s 2020 margin.

“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,” CNN political data number cruncher Harry Enten told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

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Enten noted that one area in which Swift might really help Democrats is in encouraging people to register to vote.

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 added.

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