Nicole Brodeur: ‘Swift Lift’ is something Kamala Harris could use right now
Aug 16, 2024, 9:05 AM | Updated: 9:08 am
Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Lumen Field on July 22, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
(Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
There’s a scene in the 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana, when Taylor Swift lets her political heart show.
“I need to be on the right side of history,” she said.
She’s backstage talking with her parents about Tennessee conservative Marcia Blackburn, who in 2018 was running for the U.S. Senate. Swift was upset that Blackburn voted down the Violence Against Women Act and is against gay marriage and equal pay.
“She thinks that if you’re a gay couple, or even if you look like a gay couple, you should be allowed to be kicked out of a restaurant. I think I’ll be really upset if people think Tennessee stands for those things,” said Swift, who owns a home there.
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“It’s not that I want to step into this. I just can’t not at this point and I can’t see another commercial and see her disguising these policies behind the words Tennessee Christian values. Those aren’t Tennessee Christian values.”
Not long after, in an Instagram post that made national news, Swift endorsed Blackburn’s opponent, Democrat Phil Bredesen. It didn’t help him win, but it did result in more voter registrations in one day than in the entire month.
It’s now called the Swift Lift, and it’s something Kamala Harris could use right now. With just 10 weeks until the election, Harris is not just running for president, but racing to make up the time lost by Joe Biden’s inability to let go.
Swift has already urged her 282 million Instagram followers to vote, which is great, but those same fans need to know what’s at stake in this election, and that it marks a new era, if you will in American politics. Theirs.
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These people are a force that could not only help Harris but shape American politics for years to come. Consider When tickets for the Eras tour went on sale, fans crashed the Ticketmaster website once the tour launched, fans boosted economies in every city Swift played. Flights, hotels, and those little beads you need to make friendship bracelets.
Fortune magazine estimated that the Eras tour generated $5 billion in consumer spending in the U.S. in just six months. Then, as Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelsey heated up, her fans turned their love and power to football, leading to the NFL having its highest regular season viewership since it started collecting data in 2000. A 53% spike among teenage girls, a 24% increase among women aged 18 to 24 and a 34% rise among women aged 35 and above.
Imagine what they could do in the political process with Swift’s encouragement. They could spend the next few months learning the words to equal pay, climate change, their rights over their own bodies, and their very futures.
So let me ask you, Tay, Tay and I do so with love and respect. Are you ready for it?
Nicole Brodeur is a longtime reporter and columnist who has worked at newspapers in Seattle, Philadelphia, California, and North Carolina. You can follow her on X.
