The Kamala Harris campaign had no advance notice that Taylor Swift would be endorsing her on Tuesday night.
But now that she’s on board, the campaign is moving quickly to capitalize. The Harris merchandise page offered Harris-Walz friendship bracelets — a Swift reference — for $20. They quickly sold out.
Now they are more overtly integrating Swift’s backing into their paid media. The Democratic National Committee is paying for outdoor advertising with a message alluding to Swift’s tour: “We’re in our Kamala era!”
DNC
The ad is slated to run on a digital display in Times Square in New York, and on billboards in Las Vegas. Nevada is a swing state where the Democratic Party thinks the connection to live entertainment — a major local industry — is especially powerful.
Another ad in the same locations will say “A New Way Forward… Ready for It?”
Swift endorsed Harris on Instagram shortly after Tuesday’s debate, saying the vice president “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.”
She also applauded the selection of Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, noting his long-standing support for “LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body.”
She later shared a link to Vote.gov, the official government voter registration site, in her Instagram story, which drove more than 400,000 visits to the page in 24 hours, according to the General Services Administration.
That link was an indicator that Swift and the campaign aren’t entirely on the same page.
Other Harris surrogates, such as Barack Obama and Mark Hamill, have used their social media accounts to send supporters to IWillVote.com, the voter registration site run by the Democratic National Committee.
The “Kamala Era” ad includes a link to IWillVote.com. If users submit their cell numbers on that site, the campaign can follow up with voter outreach calls and text messages.