Biden Campaign Hopes Taylor Swift Can Save His Candidacy

The campaign to reelect President Joe Biden is hoping for some big-ticket endorsements in 2024, including a wish list of celebrity endorsements called the “Taylor Strategy,” because the campaign hopes to secure an endorsement from pop singer Taylor Swift, according to a report out Monday in the New York Times.

“Taylor Swift stands tall and unique,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last year after nearly begging Swift to campaign for Biden, according to the Times report. “What she was able to accomplish just in getting young people activated to consider that they have a voice and that they should have a choice in the next election, I think, is profoundly powerful.”

Democrats see Swift as the key to getting voters to rally behind Biden, not just turn out to oppose Trump. “We just can’t rely on this anti-Trump stuff because Trump’s supporters are going to turn out big because they are emotionally tied to Trump,” said Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC). “We’ve got to get our voters emotionally tied to Biden.”

Getting Swift to endorse Biden for president this year is so high up on the campaign’s list of priorities that the Biden team recently began asking job applicants for a social media role with the campaign what their strategy would be to get the coveted endorsement.

Conservative influencer Jack Posobiec seemed to predict the pop star’s rise to prominence in Democratic politics in December. “The Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated. From her hand-selected vaccine shill boyfriend to her DINK lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Swift is so beloved that her endorsement could change the election outcome. A new poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek found that Swift holds nearly one-fifth of U.S. voters under her sway. A staggering 18% of respondents said they were “more likely” or “significantly more likely” to vote for a candidate endorsed by Swift.

“She’s influenced popular culture, sports, the economics of entire regions of the U.S. Swift is in the class by herself [ … ] Celebrity power in elections has grown because celebrity power itself has grown. And in a world awash in messages, it’s the celebrity voices that really resonate,” said communications consultant James Haggerty.