Kamala Already Has the Swifties' Vote

On Sunday afternoon, Emerald Medrano was on the phone with his sister discussing what he calls “some personal drama” when even more dramatic news broke: President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris instead. It was an earth-shattering and incredibly exciting moment for Medrano, a college student in Texas. Here he’d been presented with an opportunity to follow through on what his favorite artist, Taylor Swift, sang in “Only The Young”: They aren’t gonna change this, we gotta do it ourselves.

“I feel like us U.S swifties should mass organize and help campaign for Kamala Harris and spread how horrendous project 2025 would be to help get people’s butts down to the polls in November 😭,” he tweeted, “like if we don’t want democracy to end we really need to move and push blue votes.”

Medrano, 22 (IYKYK), knows just how powerful Swift’s fans are as he’s been one pretty much all his life. “A lot of people say that, but I really, truly mean it,” he tells me. “I was in a car seat screaming the lyrics to ‘Picture to Burn.’” When Swift released Lover in 2019, he says, “that was around the time I started accepting myself as queer.” His entry into the online fandom quickly followed: “Connecting with other people who love Taylor really grew my love for her and her music.” Within three hours of Medrano’s X post going viral, Swifties for Kamala (@swifties4kamala on all platforms and originally named Swifties for Harris) was born. A group chat that he started moved to a Discord channel, more than 300 volunteers joined up, and the Swifties got to work. They drafted a mission statement saying they are backing Harris because she has the “experience, integrity, wit, and stamina to beat Donald Trump” and to take action on a slew of issues including reproductive freedom, LGBTQIA+ rights, climate change, gun safety, and a ceasefire in Gaza. The group’s Linktree directs people to a voter-registration website and an ActBlue page where they can donate to Harris.

As of this writing, Swifties for Kamala has gained more than 128,000 followers across social-media platforms. Its Discord has stopped accepting new members while the group builds out its infrastructure. Committees are already getting started on events planning around the last leg of the Eras Tour in the U.S.; research on Project 2025 to raise awareness; voter registration, particularly in swing states; and, of course, custom friendship bracelets. I spoke with Medrano about why he’s supporting the vice-president, what Swifties for Kamala hopes to achieve, and why, although a Swift endorsement would be great, the group is not waiting around for one before getting to work.