President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign feverishly hopes to secure the support of popstar Taylor Swift, who the New York Times describes as the campaign’s top “target,” in regards to an endorsement, but a recent poll shows her potential political influence could be a wash.
In their report published on Monday, the Times’ Reid J. Epstein, Lisa Lerer, Katie Gleuck, and Katie Rodgers reported that the Biden campaign is seeking to enlist celebrities, social media stars, and former Democrat presidents to support Biden. The report comes as he trails former President Donald Trump by 4.3 percent nationally in the RealClearPolling average and as Biden’s approval rating has reached historic lows.
Chief among the Biden campaign’s endorsement prospects is the pop singer, per the article:
The campaign has begun discussions with celebrities and social media stars about promoting Mr. Biden on Instagram and TikTok. When Mr. Biden took a fund-raising swing through Southern California in December, the campaign carved out time to meet with influencers to pitch them on posting pro-Biden content. There are also plans, first reported Sunday by NBC News, to hold a fund-raiser with two Democratic former presidents: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
The biggest and most influential endorsement target is Ms. Swift, 34, the pop sensation and N.F.L. enthusiast, who can move millions of supporters with an Instagram post or a mid-concert aside. She endorsed Mr. Biden in 2020 and, last year, a single Instagram post of hers led to 35,000 new voter registrations. Fund-raising appeals from Ms. Swift could be worth millions of dollars for Mr. Biden.
Earlier, the reporters wrote support from Swift would mark “the endorsement of [the campaign’s] wildest dreams.” While unclear how serious the claim is, the Times notes it has been floated within the campaign that they could have Biden attend one of her concerts. Notably, Swift does not appear back in the United States for her “Eras Tour” until October, according to StubHub, which would be weeks before the election.
But Swift’s endorsement could serve as a wash, with nearly as many voters saying her endorsement would push them away from candidates as those who say her backing would make them more likely to support a candidate, a recent Redfield & Wilton poll showed.
The poll conducted for Newsweek and released on Sunday found that 18 percent of the 1,500 voters sampled say a Swift endorsement would make them “more likely,” to varying degrees, to back a particular candidate. However, about just as many respondents, 17 percent, said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate backed by Swift – indicating her support may not move the needle one way or another.
What is more, a majority of respondents are not Swift fans.
“Of all the respondents, 45 percent said they were fans of the singer, and 54 percent said they were not. Only 6 percent said they were not familiar with Swift,” Newsweek Senior Writer Katherine Fung wrote. She noted the survey carries a plus or minus 2.53 percent margin of error.
And demographics of Swift fans laid out in a Morning Consult poll from March show “55% of avid Swift fans are Democrats,” as Business Insider noted. “The remainder of the fans are equally split among identifying as Republicans and independents.”
In contrast to the Redfield & Wilton strategies poll, the nearly year-old Morning Consult survey showed that 53 percent of respondents were fans of the singer.
The Morning Consult further found that “Swifties lean female and white, make under $50,000, and are suburban millennials,” per Business Insider reporter Juliana Kaplan.
That poll sampled 2,204 U.S. adults from March 3-5, 2023. The margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points.
The Times’s report also comes on the heels of the Biden administration sharing it was “alarmed” over sexually explicit AI images of Swift that went viral last week.