Just a few minutes after former President Trump and current Vice President Harris completed their first debate, American pop singer Taylor Swift, nicknamed "Tay Tay" by fans, publicly expressed her support for Harris, throwing a huge bombshell into the currently evenly matched "dead water" of the U.S. election.

Taylor Swift, who has 0.28 billion followers on her Instagram account, posted a long article stating, "Like many of you, I watched tonight's debate. Now is a great time to decide which candidate to support. I will be voting for Harris because she is fighting for the rights and causes that I believe a warrior is needed to defend."

She wrote, "I believe she is a mature and talented leader. I believe that if this country is led by calm rather than chaos, we can achieve greater achievements. Her chosen running mate, Tim Walz, has made me very excited and impressed, as he has been fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and women's rights to their own bodies for decades."

"I have made my thoughts, and I have made my choice. Your thoughts are yours to make and your choice is yours to make," she added.

At the same time, Taylor Swift also clarified the rumors about her supporting Trump. Last month, Trump released multiple pictures claiming that "Taylor and her fans support Trump," which were later confirmed to be generated by AI.

She wrote, "I recently discovered that someone falsely claimed that I support Trump's presidential campaign using AI and posted this information on his website."

"This really makes me fear artificial intelligence and realize the danger of spreading false information. This also led me to the conclusion that as a voter, I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election. The simplest way to combat misinformation is to tell the truth," she wrote.

Taylor Swift also signed her full name and "Childless Cat Lady" at the end of the post, which is clearly an attack on Trump's vice president and Republican vice presidential candidate Pence.

Since Pence's nomination in July of this year, he has been criticized for his comments in 2021 that several key Democratic figures, including Harris, are pathetic "childless cat ladies." He also said, "They are unhappy with their own lives and choices, and want to make others in this country miserable."

"The Taylor Swift Effect"

The name Taylor Swift is undoubtedly familiar to most people. She has been on the cover of Time Magazine multiple times, elected as "Person of the Year," and has fans all over the world of all ages. According to a survey in 2023, about 53% of American adults said they were fans of Taylor Swift, and 16% called themselves her "superfans."

And her influence goes far beyond that. Taylor Swift has single-handedly boosted the struggling economies of various places around the world with her global tours (such as Sweden and Singapore), attracting the attention of economists. This phenomenon is known as "Taylor Swift Economics."

Therefore, Taylor Swift's public support for Harris is undoubtedly the strongest "assistance" on the latter's campaign. Two officials from Harris's campaign team told the media that Taylor Swift's support came as a surprise to the campaign team. Previously, she also supported President Biden and his running mate Harris in the 2020 election.

Not only that, since Harris took over the campaign from Biden, although her approval rating has been soaring, she has always been neck and neck with Trump and unable to make a breakthrough, and there has been a recent stagnation.

According to a survey released by the new york times and Siena College on September 8th, Trump leads Harris by a narrow margin of 48% to 47%. This is the first time in nearly a month that Trump has taken the lead over Harris in a mainstream poll.

Therefore, Taylor Swift's statement undoubtedly dropped a bomb into the dead water of the current US election, but whether the 'Taylor Swift effect' can stir up this dead water is still unknown.

Experts' opinions on this are also not consistent. For example, DeLuca, an assistant professor of political science at Yale University, believes that the influence of celebrities on voters is limited. The political polarization in the US has formed a relatively stable situation, and it is difficult for anyone to change the thoughts of the two opposing groups on this basis.

However, Swannbeek, the executive director of the Institute for Youth and Policy Director Hayes at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that Taylor Swift's influence among young people is not to be underestimated, as the millennial generation and Generation Z together make up nearly half of the US electorate.

Editor/new