It might appear laughable — the concept, simply moments after the controversy between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump concluded, pop icon Taylor Swift launched an endorsement through which she signed off on her help for the Democratic nominee as a “Childless Cat Woman” for Harris-Walz.
“I shall be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz within the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris as a result of she fights for the rights and causes I consider want a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in an Instagram put up.
“I feel she is a steady-handed, gifted chief and I consider we are able to accomplish a lot extra on this nation if we’re led by calm and never chaos. I used to be so heartened and impressed by her collection of operating mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a girl’s proper to her personal physique for many years,” she continued.
“I’ve executed my analysis, and I’ve made my selection. Your analysis is all yours to do, and the selection is yours to make. I additionally need to say, particularly to first time voters: Keep in mind that with a view to vote, you need to be registered! I additionally discover it’s a lot simpler to vote early. I’ll hyperlink the place to register and discover early voting dates and information in my story.”
So, that is meaningless blather, proper? It’s an attention-sponge sponging Kamala’s consideration simply minutes after the controversy ended, and that’s it.
Effectively, as CNN senior knowledge reporter Harry Enten identified in a Thursday phase, the Democrats had higher hope it’s somewhat greater than that.
First off, it’s in all probability useful to do a little bit of a rewind right here to remind ourselves of precisely why Joe Biden was nonetheless within the race regardless of his clearly declining well being — mentally and bodily — and why he was ultimately persuaded to drop out.
Biden and his folks primarily believed that the president was the one one who may maintain collectively the coalition that propelled the Democrats to victory in 2020: older working-class Rust Belt unionites, extra progressive younger voters, and a broad coalition of ethnic, racial and non secular minorities.
What turned more and more clear is that the coalition was falling aside — partially among minorities, however particularly among younger voters. The concept was that, by buying and selling out Biden for Kamala Harris, whose attraction is particularly tailor-made to younger leftists, they’d a minimum of sew up that phase of the vote whereas addressing weaknesses amongst black and Latino voters with a minority candidate. They may persuade the hard-hats later.
Nonetheless, that’s not fairly the way it labored out, as Enten spelled out on air when speaking about why Swift’s endorsement looms so massive.
“Why does she want the assistance? Effectively, let’s simply level out one thing that I’ve been noting all alongside throughout this marketing campaign, and that’s the underperformance that each Joe Biden and now even Kamala Harris has amongst younger voters,” Enten mentioned, earlier than turning to a graphic charting polling knowledge from the Cook dinner Political Report.
“So, that is the Democrat versus Trump margin amongst voters age 18 to 29 or underneath the age of 30. You return 4 years in the past at this level. Look, Joe Biden had a 28-point benefit. A 28-point benefit over Donald Trump. Now, you look when Joe Biden dropped out of the race, he was up by simply seven factors,” he mentioned.
“Now, Kamala Harris has improved on Joe Biden’s standing. However have a look at this. She’s solely up by 15 factors.”
Re the discuss round Swift with younger voters & voter registration, Harris & Democrats are struggling on each counts vs Sept. 2020.
Harris’ margin w/ voters underneath 30 is 15 pts — far worse than Biden’s 28 pts. Additionally, the GOP has made massive beneficial properties vs. Dems in NC/PA voter registration. pic.twitter.com/uFq3ek89tB
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) September 12, 2024
“That’s considerably lower than Joe Biden was up at this level among the many youngest voters in our voters. It’s solely about half the margin that Joe Biden was pulling in,” Enten mentioned.
“So, Kamala Harris will completely welcome within the help of Taylor Swift if she will transfer younger voters in any respect, as a result of the underside line is Kamala Harris is, in reality, not doing as properly amongst younger voters as you would possibly anticipate a Democrat to essentially be doing based mostly upon historical past.”
Wait — are we saying “pleasure” and “vibes” hasn’t damaged by? She’s had marketing campaign occasions that have been mainly live shows! Her veep candidate making dirty jokes concerning the different veep candidate that solely younger, Very On-line™ voters would get! Just about each superstar not named Taylor Swift endorse her! What extra do you want?
In the event you want Taylor Swift to win younger voters, sadly, you in all probability want much more.
Simply to be clear, whereas Swift has been identifiably a liberal for a while now, her one experience wading into a political contest was a 2018 Senate race in Tennessee. That race was mainly a toss-up between former Democrat Gov. Phil Breseden and GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn.
Swiftie-mania was solely barely much less of a factor six years in the past than it’s now, however Taylor’s endorsement of Breseden in her state of residence did nothing — or lower than nothing, contemplating the race was statistically tied within the polls when Swift made the endorsement and Blackburn ended up winning by almost 11 points.
However once more, Breseden didn’t face the identical type of challenges that Harris did. Even when she did win the controversy — it was a 3-on-1 contest, given the moderator bias, so this was hardly stunning — the polls have been nonetheless disappointing for Harris given the media-gasm she’d acquired within the wake of the Democratic Nationwide Conference. And when debates tip the scales, it’s normally amongst those that are already tuned into the race.
Given the overall apathy towards the Democratic ticket from younger voters this time, and the dearth of a large rebound given the swap to Harris, no quantity of debate spin is more likely to repair that underperformance in what could also be Kamala’s most necessary demographic.
So there you’ve got it: In Swift they belief. That’s not precisely an inspiring thought for Kamala’s marketing campaign — particularly once they understand their destiny could also be hitched, partially, to a girl who turned profoundly well-known for singing about her failed relationships.
This text appeared initially on The Western Journal.
