Support for Taylor Swift get-out-the-vote efforts falls after Super Bowl conspiracy theory
More than half of voters in a new survey say they support pop star Taylor Swift’s get-out-the-vote effort to push her fans to vote in this year’s election, but the number is down 15 points from February following a conspiracy theory surrounding the idea of a rigged Super Bowl.
The newly released Monmouth University poll found 53 percent of voters approve of Swift’s push to get her fans to vote, with 35 percent saying they disapprove. Twelve percent said they didn’t know.
After the debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris last week, Swift endorsed Harris.
Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and attended the team’s Super Bowl game against the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. At the time, a conspiracy theory was floated that the game could be rigged for the Chiefs to ensure maximum exposure for a Swift endorsement of President Biden.
There was no evidence of such a plot, and there was no endorsement at that time from Swift.
But Monmouth noted support for Swift’s efforts has dropped significantly since the conspiracy theory.
“Interestingly, support for the singer’s get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts were much higher seven months ago, when she was the subject of a debunked conspiracy theory around the election and the Super Bowl,” Monmouth wrote in a press release.
It noted that 68 percent of voters backed Swift’s turn-out-the-vote efforts in February. While support for Swift’s political engagement remains “astronomically high” among Democrats, Monmouth noted, it has dropped from 41 percent to 20 percent among Republicans and 73 percent to 52 percent among independents.
“Republicans were wary of Swift all along. What we don’t know is whether this will have any effect on the part of her fan base who already leans right,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in the release.
The poll comes a week after the 14-time Grammy award winner issued her much-anticipated endorsement of Harris.
“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” Swift wrote to her 283 million Instagram followers. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered!”
Less than 24 hours after her post, the General Services Administration announced that more than 330,000 visitors who had been referred to the voter information website through Swift’s custom link had flocked to vote.gov.
Despite Swift’s Democratic endorsement, 81 percent in an ABC News/Ipsos poll earlier this week said her support for Harris will not influence how they vote, with only 6 percent of respondents saying they are more likely to vote for Harris after Swift’s nod. Thirteen percent said it makes them less likely to back the Democratic ticket.
The Monmouth University poll was conducted from Sept. 11-15 with a probability-based national random sample of 803 voters and has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.
Less than half of likely 2024 presidential election voters have a favorable view of pop superstar Taylor Swift after her endorsement of Vice President Harris, according to a New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College poll that was released on Thursday.
The poll, conducted following Swift’s endorsement of Harris on Sept. 10, found that 44 percent of likely voters had a favorable view of the superstar, while 34 percent of voters nationally did not.
Around 22 percent did not share how they felt about the artist or did not know how they felt about her. Those were largely older male voters, the pollster noted.
Swift endorsed the Democratic nominee shortly after the ABC News debate between Harris and former President Trump. In her Instagram announcement, Swift said she supports Harris because “she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
The national survey found that 70 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of Swift, significantly higher than the 23 percent of Republicans.
Among the majority of Republicans who have an unfavorable view of the artist is the GOP nominee, who last weekend expressed his dislike of the pop superstar, writing on Truth Social, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
More than half of voters, 53 percent, in the new Monmouth University poll said they support Swift’s push to get her fans to vote. Around 35 percent said they disapproved, and 12 percent did not know about it. The number of voters who approve her get-out-the-vote effort is lower by 15 points compared to a similar poll released in February.
Taylor Swift could give both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris a run for their money if she threw her “22” hat into the White House race, according to a New York Times presidential poll.
The pop phenom came out with a 44 percent “favorability rating” among likely voters across the country, falling just short of Trump’s 47 percent and the 48 percent who favor Harris.
But 34 percent had unfavorable views of Swift, which is much better than the results for Trump, with a 51 percent unfavorability rating, and Harris with 49 percent.
Not surprisingly, given Swift’s ringing endorsement of Harris following the presidential debate, a big chunk of her support came from Democrats, with 70 percent viewing her favorably, compared to 23 percent of Republicans.
Just 11 percent of Democrats looked at her unfavorably, while 60 percent of Republicans were clearly not fans.
Swift also did well with independents, with 41 percent viewing her favorably and 32 percent unfavorably.
The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Siena College poll was conducted between Sept. 11 to 16, before the debate and Swift going public with her backing of Harris.
The pop star wrote on Instagram that she was lining up behind the Democratic nominee because “she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
The endorsement did not go down well with Trump, who wrote in a Truth Social post over the weekend: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
There was one category, The New York Times reported, that didn’t know who Swift was or didn’t much care. That 22 percent of voters is largely composed of males over 65.
Despite her influence over her millions of fans, the singer has never indicated any interest in going into politics.
But some wish Swift’s lyrics in her hit song “The 1” were pertinent to the 2024 presidential election: “It would have been sweet if it could’ve been me.”
