Who was Taylor Swift’s Kamala Harris endorsement really for?

After much ado, Taylor Swift has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris following Tuesday night’s debate. 
The world has been waiting with bated breath for the singer to announce her endorsement, with pressure mounting for the past week – from fans and the media alike – after a photo of her embracing an allegedly Trump-supporting Brittany Mahomes caused fans to question her political affiliation.
Swift’s status as a cultural juggernaut turns her every action into an event. Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC called her Harris endorsement “the most important celebrity endorsement we’ve ever seen in a presidential campaign.”
But in an election so close in a country so divided, what weight does it really hold? And, more important, who does an endorsement like this truly serve?
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Swift has been staunchly apolitical for most of her career. It wasn’t until her Netflix documentary, “Miss Americana,” that we became aware of her turn toward activism and rejection of warnings to avoid politics.
Her first true political endorsement came during the 2018 midterm elections, when she denounced Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., saying her congressional voting record “appalls and terrifies me,” and endorsed Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for the Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives.
She went on to endorse the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 and has been vocal about her disdain of Donald Trump, calling him out for “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency.”
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But Swift’s denouncement of Blackburn wasn’t enough to cost her the U.S. Senate seat, so there’s no evidence the superstar’s endorsement is enough to move the needle.
She has proved effective in getting people to register to vote, but getting them to vote for a certain candidate is a different beast.
As my colleague Sara Pequeño wrote, “A lot of people – presumably people who exist outside of ‘stan culture’ – will not understand why (her endorsement) is a big deal. Those people are not who the endorsement – or lack thereof – is for. For her fans, it matters a lot.”
Swift’s statement feels less like a radical call to action that accurately reflects the dire state of American politics and more like inoffensive political fluff to ward off those criticizing her silence.
Swift’s endorsement of Harris will placate stans eager to justify their admiration for her, but I can’t help but feel that so much of the public’s insistence on a statement was just an attempt to assign their own morality to her under the guise of “use your platform for good.” If celebrity endorsements never really work, the only impact is to attach their politics to her for validation.
Even the language of her endorsement proves that her politics are not ours. “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” she wrote on the Instagram post. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”
It’s not nearly as ardent of a political statement as we know she’s capable of.
Maybe she recognizes the limited impact she has on changing people’s politics, despite the pedestal she is placed on by the media. Or, given her cultural status and her newfound place in the conservative-leaning world of American football, she’s still finding ways to slyly play both sides.
Most important, the language of Swift’s endorsement alludes to her own realization that she alone cannot save democracy. That work belongs to us and the leaders we elect.
Kofi Mframa is a columnist and digital producer for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network.