Swifties harness their power for Kamala Harris

Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz react at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Savannah, Georgia, US, August 28, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 29 August 2024
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Swifties harness their power for Kamala Harris

  • Swifties For Kamala began as a social media initiative founded by social media user

NEW YORK: Taylor Swift has yet to weigh in on the US presidential race, but some of her superfans are already stumping for Kamala Harris.
As of Wednesday midday “Swifties for Kamala” had raised more than $140,000 in favor of the Democratic White House hopeful.
They held an inaugural fundraising call the evening prior that was joined by some 27,000 viewers, launching the effort aimed at “turning our swiftie power into political power,” as the group’s political director put it during the meeting.
Stars like Carole King along with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand appeared in the virtual meeting.
“I am a swiftie, and Taylor and I are actually friends,” King, the legendary singer-songwriter behind hits including “I Feel The Earth Move” and “You’ve Got A Friend” said on the call.
“I’ve been a political activist for years. I’ve been a volunteer, I’ve been a door knocker, even as a famous person,” King continued.
“I’m telling you all this because if any of you are thinking of volunteering to be door knockers or phone callers, but you’re a little nervous about what you might say, please believe me: there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Swifties For Kamala began as a social media initiative founded by social media user and swiftie Emerald Medrano in the hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
The effort blossomed across platforms, and with accounts that currently have more than 72,000 subscribers on X, and nearly 50,000 on Instagram.
Swift herself is not personally affiliated with the group.
“We’re a coalition of Taylor Swift fans committed to protecting the United States of America’s historical democracy by working together to help progressive candidates in local and national elections, including Vice President Kamala Harris for our country’s next president,” reads the group’s mission statement on their website.
The group has a policy platform section on their website urging the protection of LGBTQIA+ rights and reproductive freedom, as well as support for new immigrants and taking climate change seriously.
They also list “a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas” as a priority.
Along with collecting donations they’re encouraging swifties to register to vote, and selling merchandise including shirts that say “In My Voting Era.”

A global megastar with hundreds of millions of social media followers and a wildly loyal — and chronically online — fan base, Swift can move any needle with the tiniest of efforts.
The right and the left have long wanted to count the “Blank Space” singer as their own — but for years Swift stayed conspicuously out of politics, including in 2016 when Donald Trump won the presidency.
Speculation abounded that the superstar was a closet Republican, until 2018, when she broke both her silence and the Internet by endorsing the Democratic opponent of far-right politician Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee.
Blackburn won anyway, but it ushered in a new chapter for Swift: she later explained handlers had urged her against wading into politics, telling her it could damage her career — particularly in the country music industry, which despite its complexities is often associated with conservatism.
Swift endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and has conveyed pro-LGBTQ+ messages through her songs and music videos.
She also condemned the Supreme Court’s reversal of the federal right to abortion, and has encouraged droves of her fans to register to vote.
But Swift’s massive popularity has also meant she’s a regular target for political misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories, often fueled by AI and amplified by the likes of Donald Trump.
Nabbing a Swift endorsement for Harris isn’t the goal of her organizing fans, they say.
“We are not waiting on Taylor to show her support for Kamala Harris. We are doing this outside of her, using the platform of swifties as a way to get people involved in the election,” Rohan Reagan, among the group’s social media managers, told Cosmopolitan recently.
Democratic Senator Ed Markey, who also joined the kickoff call, told swifties that “I am in awe of the community you have created online to share not just your love for Taylor Swift, but your commitment to building a better world.”
“This is the time, this is the place,” he continued. “The swifties are the leaders for us to win this election.”


130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren freed: government

Freed school children are seen during a reception at the Governor's office in Minna on December 8, 2025. (AFP)
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130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren freed: government

  • The religiously diverse African country of 230 million people is the scene of myriad conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims

ABUJA: Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren taken by gunmen from a Catholic school in November, a presidential spokesman said Sunday, after 100 were freed earlier this month.
“Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” Sunday Dare said in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of smiling children.
In late November, hundreds of students and staff were kidnapped from St. Mary’s co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state.
The attack came as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok.
The west African country suffers from multiple interlinked security concerns, from jihadists in the northeast to armed “bandit” gangs in the northwest.
A UN source told AFP that “the remaining set of girls/secondary school students will be taken to Minna,” the capital of Niger state, on Tuesday.
The exact number of those kidnapped, and those who remain in captivity, has been unclear since the attack on the school, located in the rural hamlet of Papiri.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 315 students and staff were kidnapped.
Some 50 escaped immediately afterwards, and on December 7 the government secured the release of around 100.
That would leave about 165 thought to remain in captivity.
But a statement from President Bola Tinubu at the time put the remaining people being held at 115.

- Spate of mass kidnappings -

It has not been made public who seized the children from their boarding school, or how the government secured their release.
Though kidnappings for ransom are a common way for criminals and armed groups to make quick cash, a spate of mass abductions in November put an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria’s already grim security situation.
Assailants across the country kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 church worshippers and a bride and her bridesmaids, with farmers, women and children also taken hostage.
The kidnappings came as Nigeria faces a diplomatic offensive from the United States, where President Donald Trump has alleged that there were mass killings of Christians that amounted to a “genocide.”
The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject that framing, which has long been used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe.
The religiously diverse African country of 230 million people is the scene of myriad conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims.