Taylor Swift could convince President Joe Biden’s supporters to vote Republican in November, exclusive Newsweek polling shows.
Twenty-two percent of voters who backed Biden in the 2020 election say they would be more likely to vote for a GOP candidate in an election if Swift endorsed them, a May poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek found.
The survey, which was conducted among 1,500 eligible voters on May 1, shows a nine-point increase from January, when only 13 percent of Biden 2020 supporters said they would be more like to vote for a Republican candidate backed by Swift.
The singer-songwriter’s influence seems to be growing among Trump supporters as well, albeit less so then among Biden supporters. In January, 13 percent of Trump 2020 voters said they’d be more likely to vote for a Democrat candidate endorsed by Swift. That number only rose to 16 percent this month.
Both the May and January polls had a margin of error of +/-2.53 percent. The January survey was conducted among 1,500 eligible voters on January 18.
Swift’s fame has been stratospheric and her celebrity status has only skyrocketed over the last year. She was named Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year” and her wildly popular Eras tour became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark. Her popularity has raised questions about whether a Swift endorsement could sway the 2024 election.
“She’s influenced popular culture, sports, the economics of entire regions of the U.S.,” communications consultant James Haggerty previously told Newsweek. “So why not politics and elections?”
Although she’s largely stayed out of politics, Swift supported the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 and did make critical comments about former President Donald Trump during the last presidential election cycle.
Swift also endorsed two Democratic candidates for Congress in Tennessee in 2018 as part of her opposition to Republican Marsha Blackburn’s Senate campaign. Blackburn went on to win her race, defeating Swift-backed Phil Bredesen with more than 54 percent of the vote. Swift’s other candidate, Jim Cooper, won his House race.