Meet the Swifties Campaigning for Kamala Harris

In little than a week, Swifties person turned their assemblage into an online predetermination office for US vice president Kamala Harris—and the run wants successful connected the effort.

After President Joe Biden announced that helium would not question reelection past week, Emerald Medrano, 22, flipped connected the news. As helium watched pundits yap astir the Democratic ticket, helium felt that helium had to bash something. He had ne'er been politically involved, but helium had a fashionable Swift stan account. Not definite of what to do, he tweeted, “I consciousness similar america U.S. swifties should wide signifier and assistance run for Kamala Harris and dispersed however horrendous task 2025 would beryllium to assistance get people’s butts down the polls.”

The effect was contiguous and overwhelming. Medrano received hundreds of replies and nonstop messages from different Swifties offering their support, mostly motivated by civilian rights, trans rights, and reproductive healthcare. Some had a inheritance successful politics. Others operated monolithic Swift stan accounts oregon worked successful societal media professionally. The fandom served arsenic a societal lubricant for the politically-curious Swiftie to get progressive and leverage the skills they learned successful the assemblage for electoral means.

“The shared involvement and cognition of the fandom is decidedly a truly large mode to span that transportation implicit to civic engagement and governmental activism,” Madeline Miner, 22, a Swifties for Kamala societal media coordinator, tells WIRED.

Since Medrano’s tweet, Swifties for Kamala has grown to much than 300 members, with thousands much applying to articulation their Discord server. The radical has grown truthful rapidly that it’s already undergone 3 “restructurings.” Now, it has much than 80,000 followers connected TikTok, 48,000 connected X, 16,000 connected Instagram, and a Substack titled “Paint the Town Blue,” successful notation to a Swift song. (Other pro-Harris Swiftie accounts person cropped up implicit the past week, but Swifties for Kamala is the largest.)

The radical has 4 teams: communications, finance, outreach, and social. For social, the teams are assigned to platforms, each with its ain lead. Rohan Reagan, 21, who already ran a palmy Swiftie account connected Instagram, leads the group’s efforts there. For years, Reagan was posting edits helium made of Swift; present he’s making them of Harris.

“The reels, the posts, each of those are either created by maine oregon I outsource it from idiosyncratic else,” Reagan said. “We person a station online connected the leafage close present that idiosyncratic conscionable did connected their ain and created each the probe infographics connected their own. So they brought it to me. I fixed it up a bit, and past posted.”

Before Reagan oregon immoderate different societal pb could make the edits, Leigh Bauer, 23, a societal media coordinator, started gathering retired the marque and dependable of the account. Bauer drew inspiration from the fandom—specifically the authoritative Swift instrumentality account, @taylornation13, connected x.

“They person this precise chiseled dependable that shares quality and updates and tells america erstwhile merch is happening and erstwhile albums are coming retired and whatnot. But they besides are really, truly large astir engaging with fans online,” Bauer said. “And truthful wanting to spell disconnected of that to proceed to beryllium different acquainted dependable that fans volition understand… but besides being a respectable voice.”