Inside the Swifties Movement to Elect Kamala Harris

[Rubyshoo]

The future of America is young, hopeful, and swift. On the day President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and fully endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Emerald Medrano, a 22-year-old college student in Texas, ran to Twitter and posted: “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 added, “Like if we don’t want democracy to end we really need to move and push blue votes.” The response was immediate. Medrano received a flood of replies and messages as fellow Swifties from across the world galvanized around the fight to protect reproductive health care, civil and LGBTQ+ rights, and the climate.

Less than four hours later, Swifties for Kamala was born. The coalition, sparked by Medrano’s tweet and brought to action through a community of 300 volunteers on Discord, soon declared their mission statement: to help elect Harris as the 47th president of the United States. The group currently has more than 165,000 followers across its social media platforms, with 82,000 on TikTok alone and a newly launched Substack called “Paint the Town Blue.” On Linktree, Swifties are directed to a voter-registration and ActBlue page where people can donate to Harris’ campaign. While thousands have applied to join the Discord server, memberships have been paused while it revamps its infrastructure to accommodate the wave of incoming Swifties eager to join the cause.

Medrano says that Harris’ campaign has “rocket-boosted” the movement, and he sees the vice president as a trailblazer who has opened doors for others from marginalized communities. “That kind of mindset in a person is something that is really inspiring, and that’s someone I want to stand behind. Change is when you open a door and you leave it open,” says Medrano, comparing Harris to Taylor Swift’s own impact in the music industry and how she “does that for women in her field.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/swifties-for-kamala-harris-2024-election-1235072177/


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