Taylor Swift, the popular singer, endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris — and her running mate, Tim Walz — this week. And in a message posted online, Swift included a link to a voter registration website, which according to new information, subsequently got some serious traffic.
“NEW: A General Services Administration spox tells NPR that as of 11 a.m. ET today there have been 306,422 visitors to vote.gov referred from Taylor Swifts’s URL she shared on Instagram last night,” NPR reporter Elena Moore posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” Swift posted to Instagram, where she has more than a quarter of a billion followers.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
Some of that artificial intelligence-generated imagery was shared by Trump himself on Truth Social, the platform that Swift referenced. It included an image claiming that Swift “wants you to vote for Donald Trump,” though the singer, in reality, made no such indication. “I accept!” Trump wrote, reacting to the faked support.
Swift is known for a particularly loyal, impassioned fanbase.
Harris, meanwhile, has also received high-profile endorsements from a series of workers’ unions with major footprints in highly targeted, closely watched states including Nevada and Michigan. And Harris has stuck to the campaign trail, already crisscrossing the country — showing up in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania multiple times — since taking Biden’s place in the 2024 race for president.
