When we look back at Kamala Harris’s historic run for office, we’ll probably remember the Zoom calls. First, it was Black women rallying around Harris on the night President Biden dropped out of the race. Then, white women had their turn, raising $8.5 million for the campaign with a “White Women for Harris” call. Next up were “White Dudes for Harris.” Obviously, Swifties for Kamala had to throw their hat in the ring next.
The group — which is unaffiliated with Swift — held its first big Zoom meeting on Tuesday, with CNN reporting that over 26,000 stans logged on during the two-hour call. One of the call’s organizers, Irene Kim, told CNN she was hopeful that either Harris or Tim Walz might make an appearance, but it seems like they were busy. Instead, the Swifties got remarks from Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Ed Markey, and actual famous person Carole King. Not too shabby for a movement that started with a tweet.
On the call, each speaker did their best to tailor (he-he) their message to Swifties specifically. That included lots of references to lyrics, several puns, and in the case of King, a brief performance.
“Harris will take on big corporations that are screwing you over. I’m looking at you, Ticketmaster,” said Warren, referencing the messy Eras Tour presale that made it all the way to the Senate Judiciary Committee. While rallying the Swifties, Warren added, “I’m just going to be blunt, it is going to be a blunt fight ahead. We have a lot to do and, dang, there are only 24 hours in a day or 144 ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Versions).’”
Then, King took the floor, name-dropping Swift (and John Kerry) as a real-life friend during her remarks. Okay, brag! “I am a Swiftie, and Taylor and I are actually friends,” King said. “We’ve had conversations backstage, and I see her as sort of my musical and songwriting granddaughter, and we have a lovely relationship and I’m so proud of her.” The songwriting legend concluded her time by singing the chorus of her favorite Swift song: “Shake It Off.” (Favorite? Really? Has she heard “Exile”?)
Gillibrand, a self-described “true Swiftie,” was the biggest stan of the night. She has seen the singer twice in concert and said that while she could not pick a favorite song, her favorite album is Fearless. That’s a true Swiftie pick. After encouraging everyone on the call to get involved however they can, Gillibrand read off some jokes that her staff had written for the occasion.
“Karma’s a relaxing thought, but for Donald Trump, it’s not,” she said, ignoring the original amount of syllables in that lyric. She closed her set by saying, “Kamala is saying, look what you made me do … Kamala is saying, who’s afraid of little old me?” Are these jokes in the traditional sense? Not really, but Gillibrand really enjoyed delivering them, so we can let her have this one.
Markey focused on climate change and the effects it could have on Swift’s ability to host parties in Rhode Island. “Climate change is threatening our favorite phenomena,” he said. “The waters on the shores of Taylor’s holiday house in New England are some of the fastest warming waters in the world, outside of the Arctic. Right now, Kamala is running against the climate-denier-in-chief.”
Over the course of the call, Swifties donated more than $138,000 to the Harris campaign, according to CNN. I think they could bring in even more dough if they actually get Harris on the next call and someone supplies her with a list of decent-ish Swift jokes. “I can’t wait until we can all look at Donald Trump and say, ‘I forgot that you existed!’” she might say. Or maybe, “Our song is your mail-in ballot, making its way to your board of elections!” I am available to do punch-up for the next call.
