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There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.     -Carl Gustav Jung

Swifties for Kamala has grown into an online community of thousands strong. Their mission: to help elect Harris as the 47th U.S. president

By Charisma Madarang
Rolling Stone Magazine

August 1, 2024

The future of America is young, hopeful, and swift. On the day President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and fully endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Emerald Medrano, a 22-year-old college student in Texas, ran to Twitter and posted: “I feel like us U.S swifties should mass organize and help campaign for Kamala Harris and spread how horrendous project 2025 would be to help get people’s butts down to the polls in November 😭.”

He added, “Like if we don’t want democracy to end we really need to move and push blue votes.” The response was immediate. Medrano received a flood of replies and messages as fellow Swifties from across the world galvanized around the fight to protect reproductive health care, civil and LGBTQ+ rights, and the climate.

Less than four hours later, Swifties for Kamala was born. The coalition, sparked by Medrano’s tweet and brought to action through a community of 300 volunteers on Discord, soon declared their mission statement: to help elect Harris as the 47th president of the United States. The group currently has more than 165,000 followers across its social media platforms, with 82,000 on TikTok alone and a newly launched Substack called “Paint the Town Blue.” On Linktree, Swifties are directed to a voter-registration and ActBlue page where people can donate to Harris’ campaign. While thousands have applied to join the Discord server, memberships have been paused while it revamps its infrastructure to accommodate the wave of incoming Swifties eager to join the cause.

Medrano says that Harris’ campaign has “rocket-boosted” the movement, and he sees the vice president as a trailblazer who has opened doors for others from marginalized communities. “That kind of mindset in a person is something that is really inspiring, and that’s someone I want to stand behind. Change is when you open a door and you leave it open,” says Medrano, comparing Harris to Taylor Swift’s own impact in the music industry and how she “does that for women in her field.”

While the 14-time Grammy winner has yet to endorse the group, she publicly supported Biden and Harris in 2020. “The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included,” Swift told V Magazine at the time. “Under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs.” The singer even marked the occasion by baking blue Biden-Harris cookies.

The coalition itself echoes the very fandom around the global star and embraces its enthusiasm, tight-knit sense of community, and propensity for good karma. “We’re incorporating existing parts of our fandom culture to share resources and create volunteer initiatives,” says Irene Kim, the group’s co-founder and senior communications director. From incorporating friendship bracelets into future events to weaving lyrics in social media posts, Kim says, “You come for the Swiftiness, but you’re going to stay for the politics. We want it to be fun, because it’s important to show that politics and voting don’t have to be scary or boring. In terms of encouraging first time voters, we’re really prioritizing getting out the right resources and education.”

Harris’ team is excited to give Swifties the tools to mobilize communities that they have a unique connection to, says Kim, and has met with the growing coalition on Zoom and Google Meet, while also communicating via email — helping the group facilitate and track signups.

Paralleling the movement to the Eras Tour, Kim says, “The same way we organize around a concert pre-sale, we’re organizing around [showing] how you can phone bank, text bank, or how you can go vote, or how you can help other people make sure they’re able to vote. … If there’s one thing Swifties are going to do, it’s make something big and fun.” 

Medrano adds, “The Swiftie blueprint is that we will always go the extra mile, but with all the glitter — that fun energy, family energy, loving energy.”

On Discord, Swifties for Kamala channels are a complex network of the whimsical and lighthearted to direct, action-oriented spaces. When showing me a sneak peek before launching the virtual community’s new infrastructure, Kim reveals a dizzying array of both open and private channels organized by social media platforms, leadership planning, committees, Eras Tours and other in-person events, and more. Among the formidable list of existing committees, which consist of self-directed initiatives, there’s a channel for DACA Dreamers, state information, and Project 2025 research where volunteers provide digestible information for both the social team and others to share. Kim says a big part of the group’s social efforts is to both educate and combat misinformation, noting that in their Substack’s first newsletter, a priority was to show Trump’s affiliations with the Heritage Foundation’s 887-page Project 2025 policy proposal (which the ex-president has vehemently, ridiculously denied.)

»The co-founders credit the movement’s massive success to the diversity of the Swifties’ fandom. “As much as everyone thinks we’re all — depending on the day — 12-year-old girls, or we’re all a childless cat women or whatever, at the end, we’re literally every age range, every possible demographic,” says Kim.

Pointing to the various channels, she explains, “You have someone pitching a great idea for an initiative, then you have a lawyer step in to help navigate the legal side of it, and then you’ll have someone with a graphics background come in. And then we’ll have so many wonderful people work on social media to be like, ‘OK, and here’s how we’re gonna roll this out.’”

When I ask what era best reflects Swifties for Kamala’s mission and the moment Swifties are in right now, Medrano and Kim consider the question for a beat. 

Finally, Medrano replies, “We are in our Lover era. We are fighting for our rights. ‘You Need to Calm Down,’ you know? ‘Miss Americana,’ just very much going forward with the full rainbow spectrum of Swifties — our diversity, everything we care about and marching into battle. … Behind the scenes, Tortured Poets Department, we’re a little bit losing our minds, but in a very good and reflective way on how Swifties navigate the world.”

Kim agrees, “Lover is accurate, especially, because I think there is an undercurrent, there’s some anxiety … but there is so much hope, and I think the hope is what’s driving us. … Leaning into the feeling of being like, ‘It’s gonna work out, and we’re just gonna go for it, and we’re just gonna keep going.’”

When reflecting on the organized chaos that goes into steering a global movement, Medrano smiles and says, “I’m ’22.’ I really feel the vibe of ‘We’re happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time.’ It’s miserable, magical. Taylor was right. It is truly an experience being 22.”