(Washington) Pop superstar, youth idol, and soon to be campaign icon? The influence of singer Taylor Swift is at the heart of all desire for the 2024 American presidential election.
The 34-year-old artist, personality of the year according to the magazine Timeis at the top of his game, breaking absolutely all records.
One example among many: his “Eras Tour” exceeded the symbolic threshold of a billion dollars in revenue over 60 dates in 2023 – an amount never seen before in the history of music.
PHOTO INEZ VAN LAMSWEERDE AND VINOODH, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Magazine cover Time.
Hailing from the rural state of Tennessee, Taylor Swift began her journey in country music, a genre particularly beloved by conservatives.
According to a survey published Tuesday by the Marist Institute, the artist behind hits like “Shake It Off” and “Bad Blood” is credited with 70% favorable opinions among Americans.
A figure that Joe Biden, for whom she voted in 2020, can only dream of for himself: the Democrat’s popularity rating, in decline since the start of his mandate, now stands at just under 40%. favorable opinions according to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
Could Taylor Swift revive Joe Biden by calling to support him in 2024? The presidential candidate’s campaign team is sure of it.
“Please don’t tell us we need a Taylor Swift strategy. We are following the file,” joked an executive from Biden’s team on Wednesday, sharing a job description for the campaign.
“Another level”
But is this support so easy to obtain? The singer was widely criticized by Democrats for not openly supporting Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump in 2016.
After years of caution, the singer came out of the woodwork for the first time in 2018, endorsing a Democrat in her home state of Tennessee.
In 2020, Taylor Swift officially announced her support for Joe Biden against President Donald Trump, accusing the Republican of having “fanned the flames of white supremacism and racism throughout (his) mandate”.
The exact impact this support had on the Democrat’s victory is difficult to quantify.
But the artist has, since the last election, accessed a new status.
Taylor Swift “was popular in 2020, but her popularity […] has gone to another level,” says Matthew Harris, professor of political science at Park University.
The star is very popular among young women of voting age. Joe Biden is counting heavily on this electorate, which brought him to power in 2020, to get re-elected.
But the polls are not good for the Democrat among young people, particularly since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Many criticize his administration’s too strong support for the Israeli ally.
And according to a survey published in early December by a Harvard institute, the number of young people surveyed “definitely” planning to vote for the next presidential election fell to 49%, compared to 57% in the fall of 2019.
“Mobilize”
The participation rate in general, and that of young people in particular, will be one of the keys to the next presidential election.
And for Matthew Harris, it is surely in this area that Taylor Swift could have the most impact.
“I don’t think people are like, ‘Oh! Taylor Swift supports Joe Biden, so I’m going to vote for him,” he explains. The most important will be “his ability to mobilize people, to encourage them to register to vote”, because “these are people who are already predisposed to vote for Joe Biden”.
Especially since the “Swifties”, the name given to the singer’s fans, live mainly in residential suburbs, adds the political scientist, areas which “tip the American political balance”.
Taylor Swift published a message on Instagram in September inviting her 272 million subscribers to use the Vote.org platform to register to vote.
Result ? The organization recorded more than 35,000 new registrations that day, a jump of 23% compared to the same day a year earlier, and further proof of the singer’s influence.
The superstar could also encourage mobilization through his positions, particularly on abortion.
When the Supreme Court annulled the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion in 2022, the artist said she was “terrified” that women’s right to control their own bodies would be taken away from them, a fight that is close to Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s vice-president.
But for the latter to gain the singer’s support, perhaps the president would no longer have to confuse her with Britney Spears, as he did in November…