Taylor Swift Fans Are in Their Voting Era as Elizabeth Warren Joins Swifties for Kamala Kickoff

Taylor Swift is known for the “surprise songs” acoustic section of her Eras Tour set, but on Tuesday evening, it was fellow musician Carole King belting out a tune to the delight of thousands of rapt Swifties.

King was one of several speakers on a virtual kickoff call for the grassroots Swifties for Kamala political organizing group, a growing cohort Swift fans who are putting their personal networks, friendship bracelet-making skills, and enthusiasm to work in support of helping Vice President Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

“Don’t be afraid, there’s too much at stake,” King told viewers, before mentioning that Swift had performed one of her songs at King’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, so she’d need to return the favor, launching into an impromptu a cappella rendition of Swift’s “Shake It Off.”

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According to the group’s social media, more than 34,000 viewers tuned in to the call’s livestream on YouTube and Zoom, and before the final sign-off nearly two hours later had raised an excess of $122,000 in donations, released a merch drop benefitting voter registration org When We All Vote featuring “in my voting era” slogans, and King bursting into song. Another notable moment: Sen. Ed Markey calling out “Snow On the Beach” as his favorite Swift track before quoting the radio edit of the song that it’s “weird but beautiful” to segue into climate change talking points and letting that thick Massachusetts accent fly in his pronunciation of both “Karma” and “Kamala.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke on the call as well, shouting out “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” as her Swift song of choice “when I have time.”

“I want to start with you and what I love best about Swifties,” she said. “You are resilient and you know how to take on bullies and you know how to be your most authentic, most joyful selves. You come together, hand in hand, friendship bracelets on your wrists, and you overcome pretty much anything that life throws at you. That is what the Kamala Harris campaign is all about: It’s about standing up for what is right in the face of bullies like Donald Trump.”

“I feel like we should be playing ‘Applause’ and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ in the background, but there are copyright laws, and we are very careful about that over here, so we are just going to sit in silence,” co-founder Irene Kim joked at the top of the call, likening the anticipation to the buzz in a crowd before one of Swift’s performances, complete with the signature pre-show soundtrack.

The group is not officially affiliated with Swift or her team, nor has Swift endorsed any candidates in this election. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and has spoken out against Trump in the past.

On the call, April Glick Pulito, who pulls double duty as the S4K (as they have nicknamed themselves) co-founder and political director, on top of her day job as communications coordinator of Citizen Action of New York, said that “everything we’ve been doing here is to help turn our Swiftie power into political power.” The group encouraged donations to Harris’s campaign, suggesting amounts of $13 (Swift’s lucky number), $19.89 (her birth year), $22 (I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling, etc.), and $47 (Harris’s number in the POTUS lineup if successful, a number that several on the call showed off painted in sparkly blue on the backs of their hands, accessorized with stacks and stacks of beaded friendship bracelets).

Speakers including Rep. Becca Balint, Rep. Chris Deluzio, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and more sprinkled Swift references throughout their remarks (the number of times the “Long Live” line “I’ve had the time of my life fighting dragons with you” was riffed on should have Trump checking to see if he may have scales he didn’t know about), the effect both awkward and sweet, the earnestness abundantly apparent. Take this run from Balint, who invoked “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” “I Did Something Bad,” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” in the space of just a few breaths, delivering an impassioned message.

“Therein lies the issue: Friends don’t try to trick you,” Balint said. “You’ve got Trump and Vance who say one thing and do another, who have no qualms about lying to us, saying anything to get elected, and I never trust a narcissist and neither should you, because we know when a man talks we owe him nothing. We owe him nothing, you know that, so I want everyone on this call, every single person, to channel the feeling of ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’ We have more power than we know, and they should be afraid of our power, because it’s massive when we come together.”

Representatives for Taylor Swift did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair‘s request for comment.