What Do Taylor Swift Fans Expect From Her in This Election?

This story is part of the KQED series The Fandom Vote, exploring the election-year concerns and voting preferences of pop culture fanbases.

In the dry heat on a recent Saturday in Sacramento, just half a mile from the state Capitol, a long line of fans waited outside a downtown nightclub to attend a dedicated Taylor Swift party.

One of these fans was Rachel Hills, who walked the line at Ace of Spades handing black Sharpies to those around her, inviting them to write the name of a man who had wronged them on her long, white ball gown she was wearing – a new Swiftie tradition that references the singer’s 2024 song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” Hills promised she would burn the dress after the show in a form of cathartic release.

Among the scribbled names of ex-boyfriends and family members, someone had written a familiar name at the bottom of Hills’ dress: “Donald Trump.”

Politics is a recurring topic among Taylor Swift’s fanbase, and Swifties – like K-Pop stans and the BeyHive – are known for being diligent organizers. In August, more than 34,000 attendees tuned in to a “Swifties for Kamala” Zoom call.

Hills said that before Biden stepped aside in July, she’d felt anxiety and dread about a possible second Trump presidency. But then, “Kamala came in and I just, all of a sudden, felt a seed of hope,” she told KQED, specifically citing Harris’ stance on reproductive rights.

Earlier in her life, Hills “had to selectively reduce because I was pregnant with conjoined twins and a third baby,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to make that decision to save my one daughter’s life if that [procedure] hadn’t been in play … It’s so important for people to have that option, and to be able to make those decisions based on what their doctors are helping them with.”

Her daughter is now 16 – and Hills is thinking about the world that she will grow up in. She wants her teen, like all teens, to “feel the freedom to do what they need to do.”

“They are a generation that pull no punches. They are so smart, and they just do things differently,” she said. “I have so much hope for them. But they need a place to start from.”

To Hills, it often feels like Swift is “doing things that you would expect the government to do to help,” referencing Swift’s donations to struggling families during the pandemic. Swift can even indirectly impel the government to take action, as she did with the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster. The singer, said Hills, “has so much sway. She does so much good.”

But she also acknowledges that wanting famous people to be involved in politics is a “double-edged sword.”

“Elon Musk right now is just going off the rails, and he has so much money and is influencing things,” she said. “I don’t think because you have endless amounts of money that you should have political sway.”

Expectations of ‘Miss Americana’

Concisely explaining the singer’s relationship to her public over the past two decades can be difficult, even contentious, especially when it comes to politics.

How one views Taylor Swift – the figure, the singer, even the activist – often depends on how attuned they are to the latest news around her.

“I know that we’ve had the Vienna situation,” said 27-year-old Sacramento resident Alondra Monrroy, who is supporting Kamala Harris. “She’s only one person, but she has a lot of power, so I do hope she’ll speak about [the election]. But at the same time, I understand why she doesn’t.”

Monrroy was referencing an incident in late August, when authorities thwarted an attack intended to kill thousands at Taylor Swift’s concert in Vienna – reminding many of the 2017 bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people. Swift waited to comment on the incident until the European leg of her tour had concluded, saying that, “The reasons for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” her statement read. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint.”

Swift’s social media has gone dark since.

“Most people are mad that she stayed quiet [about the Vienna cancellation],” said 19-year-old Leslie Rewinkle. “I’m not sure if it was just that one concert that was going to have people killed or if it was multiple after that, but I’m glad that she stayed quiet. Solely for the fact of protecting everybody and the vicinity of it.”

“I’ll ask from her just for her to stay true to herself,” she added.

Over the years, the rollercoaster of her public image hurdles on – even without her saying very much about politics at all: In 2017, she was praised online by the alt-right, who hailed her as their icon. By the 2020s, conservative outlets and Republicans were decrying her as a practitioner of witchcraft and pledging a “holy war” against her.

Trump’s presidency encouraged many celebrities to speak vocally about politics, with varying degrees of success or savviness. But for Swift, she made waves when she made her first endorsement of a candidate – a Democrat – in 2018.

Miss Americana, a self-made 2020 documentary about Swift, revealed that the singer pushed hard for this endorsement. In one pivotal scene, Swift is surrounded by mostly men – including her father – who are seen vocally dissuading her from endorsing the Democratic Tennessee senatorial candidate.

Watching the documentary, the legacy of female country band The Chicks clearly loomed large over her management’s heads. The female country band, once beloved, were viciously ostracized by the music industry and fans after expressing anger for then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq invasion.

But Swift cited her strong reaction against Trump – and the Republican senatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn, whom she saw as a threat to feminism and LGBTQ+ rights – as a need to be “the right side of history.” In fact, the song “Only the Young,” released with Miss Americana, directly references the kind of despair her young fans may be feeling due to the Republican presidency: “It keeps me awake / The look on your face / The moment you heard the news / You’re screaming inside.”

Since, Swift has been vocal about women’s rights and supporting Democrats, and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. In the midst of her wildly popular Eras world tour, her critics from the left often say she is not doing enough. Most recently, Swift’s been criticized for not pushing back publicly against Trump for his use of AI images of her, fabricating an endorsement for him. (It’s worth noting that the legal recourse for using AI is generally still pretty fuzzy.)

These are not people who hate Taylor Swift, necessarily. Some of her harshest critics are her fans. The inherent intimacy of this kind of fandom, combined with the platform for one’s thoughts that social media provides, has for many turned the role of ‘fan’ into a kind of policing force, watching and commenting and posting on a singer’s personal life – mostly their romantic life. Swift expressed distaste for this kind of fan behavior in a recent song, “But Daddy I Love Him.”

19-year-old Tae Siera, who was attending the Sacramento Swift party with Rewinkle, said that fans who are too young to vote – and feel like they cannot make change – try to express their opinions by putting pressure on celebrities to speak out.

“I think it’s important for celebrities to somewhat say, ‘Here’s where I stand,’” said Siera. But then fans need to “go out there and make change.”

“Write letters to your local Congress. You can talk to your parents to see if they’re voting the way that you want to. Try to educate the adults in your life, because a lot of them actually are not as informed as you think they are,” Siera said. “[Swift] can only do so much, and then it’s up to everyone else to really make that change themselves.”

What are the issues on top of Swifties’ minds?

While the Swift fans in Sacramento also cited concerns over immigration justice, LGBTQ+ rights and student-loan forgiveness as electoral priorities for November, attendees overwhelmingly said they were worried about attacks on abortion. 20-year-old Karen Solano said she felt fear for how America is “just going back” on reproductive rights.

“I feel like a lot of people don’t know how devastating it is for women right now,” Solano said.

26-year-old Debora Rosales, waiting in line alongside Solano, agreed.

“The rights that women have worked so hard for – just how hard they work to get to where we are – and to have that be so easily taken away from us … It’s just really heartbreaking,” said Rosales. “We just got to keep fighting and got to keep being outspoken about everything.”

Like fellow pop star Olivia Rodrigo, Swift herself has commented on the overturn of Roe vs. Wade: “I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that.”

It’s the type of statement that Christina Parker, 35, and Courtney Parker, 31, appreciate.

“She’s very verbal about where she stands, which is pretty incredible, especially coming from a background of country,” said Christina. It “shouldn’t be a question” if she or anyone has an ectopic pregnancy and may need a procedure to save her life, she said.

The two say they also see themselves in Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to hold the Vice Presidential role.

“It’s an emotional time, honestly,” Christina said. “Especially looking how we look and how we present, and having somebody who is running for office that looks and represents us.”

“My hope is that if Kamala wins, Taylor performs at her inauguration,” said Courtney.

26-year-olds Ashly Smith and Maddey Meckel said they ultimately hope Swift will eventually publicly endorse Harris – especially because of the galvanizing effect it would have on the youth vote.

“This is the first election I’m going to vote in,” Meckel said, “that I actually feel proud to vote for a candidate.”

Read more stories of pop-culture fandoms and the election in the KQED series The Fandom Vote.