How fandom is shaping the 2024 presidential election

On Thursday, on the Democratic Nationwide Conference, a rumor took maintain. Somebody tweeted that Beyoncé would carry out, and an anticipatory buzz commenced. TMZ confirmed it. Viewers waited with bated breath for the arrival of Queen Bey. After which, nothing. No Beyoncé. On Friday morning, within the chilly gentle of day, the jokes started. “They’re saying Beyoncé would possibly come to the Lunch and Be taught seminar at work right this moment,” somebody wrote on X. 

In a 2011 interview with Collider, actor Christopher Heyerdahl mentioned, “Fandom can hold one thing alive, and fandom can take it down.” He was speaking about followers’ ardour for his work within the Twilight motion pictures as a result of — 13 years in the past, because the web stretched its younger legs — fandom was a robust automobile driving the success of YA fantasy novels and franchises.

In 2024, fandom helps to determine the outcomes of elections. And fandom could lastly put a lady within the White Home.

As soon as the purview of nerds and wonks, fandom has been mainstreamed in monoculture. In its annual developments report from this yr, YouTube discovered that 80 p.c of respondents between the ages of 14 and 44 consumed content material about one thing they’re a fan of at the least weekly on YouTube. Analysis performed by Amazon’s promoting arm in 2023 discovered that 70 p.c of respondents take into account their fandom and fan group a part of their on a regular basis lives, and virtually 90 p.c share their passions and fandoms with different folks of their lives.

Fandom has additionally change into intertwined with identification. For instance, 47 p.c of Gen Z respondents (ages 14-24) within the YouTube survey mentioned they belong to a fandom that nobody they know personally is part of.

Over the previous decade, as politics has change into extra private, fandom and the struggle for freedom of expression have merged. Pop stars are more and more outspoken about political points and have change into highly effective mouthpieces for the causes that matter most to them and their followers. It is no coincidence that a big faction of pop star fandom includes ladies and LGBTQ folks, two teams with bodily autonomy in danger in a second Trump presidency. 

Megan Thee Stallion performs at a marketing campaign occasion for Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at a marketing campaign rally on the Georgia State Convocation Middle on July 30, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Credit score: Megan Varner/Getty Pictures

Olivia Rodrigo, for instance, has been notably outspoken about abortion. When the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, she devoted the tune “Fuck You” to the court docket of report. This yr, Rodrigo partnered with the Nationwide Community of Abortion Funds to supply free contraception, lubricant, and Plan B to attendees of her Guts World Tour till her crew swiftly reversed course after widespread media consideration. Live performance handouts learn “Funding abortion? It is a good suggestion. Proper?” in reference to Rodrigo’s tune “unhealthy thought, proper?”

Pop star endorsements of Harris vary from overt to implicit. Megan Thee Stallion, for instance, carried out at a Harris rally in Atlanta, sporting a cropped pantsuit. She launched her tune “Physique” by addressing the viewers: “I do know my women within the crowd love they physique, and if you wish to hold loving your physique, who to vote for.” And, after followers of Charli XCX reworked memes about her brat album right into a cultural commentary about Harris’s social capital, the Brit tweeted, “Kamala IS brat” in a present of assist.

Maybe rumors of Beyoncé’s look at Thursday evening’s DNC caught on rapidly as a result of she has solely provided a tacit endorsement of Harris, permitting the marketing campaign to make use of her tune “Freedom” whereas threatening authorized motion towards the Trump marketing campaign for its latest use of the identical observe. 

The Harris marketing campaign has cleverly leveraged this perceived alignment with the pop star constituency. It sponsored a “That is Charli XCX” playlist on Spotify. References to Chappell Roan, a pop artist with a latest meteoric rise, are woven into the literal cloth of the marketing campaign: it raised greater than $1 million by means of gross sales of a hat that resembled the pop star’s merch. The singer’s “Good Luck, Babe” performed throughout the DNC roll name for Roan’s dwelling state of Missouri.

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Winking at followers in these methods isn’t just sensible; it is important. Fandoms are glorious grassroots organizers. They unite throughout faith, race, sexuality, and geography to assist their idol win awards and achieve media protection by means of methodical, constant motion. Ok-pop followers organizing towards Trump grew to become one of many largest tales from the 2020 presidential election. In 2024, fandoms have realized from previous makes an attempt to impact change and are quicker and fiercer than ever.

That could be why no pop star endorsement is extra anticipated than that of Taylor Swift. When Harris changed President Biden because the de facto Democratic nominee in July, Swifties created a flurry of organizing exercise beneath the moniker Swifties4Kamala. In a broadly shared screenshot, one abroad Swiftie earnestly requested the place they may solid a vote for Harris on-line. It was a pleasant instance of the fashionable fan’s intuition to impact change by means of purely digital channels.

In a press release to Mashable, Laura Brounstein, Spokesperson for Harris for President, mentioned, “Trusted and genuine messengers might be among the handiest in right this moment’s media setting, so when the Swifties speak to their family and friends about why they’re voting for VP Harris, they’ll be listened to!” The marketing campaign expressed gratitude for different fandoms, too. “There may be nothing like natural, heartfelt assist!” mentioned Brounstein. “We’re so grateful to have such various, passionate, and inventive supporters utilizing their platforms to speak in regards to the stakes of this election.”

Although she has been silent to date, it might make sense for Swift to endorse Harris. She endorsed Biden and Harris within the 2020 presidential election. Earlier than that, in 2018, she made her first-ever political assertion in an Instagram put up rebuking the views of Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who was in search of election in Tennessee. “[Blackburn’s] voting report in Congress appalls and terrifies me,” Swift wrote in a caption. “She voted towards equal pay for ladies. She voted towards the reauthorization of the Violence In opposition to Girls Act, which makes an attempt to guard ladies from home violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes companies have a proper to refuse service to homosexual {couples}. She additionally believes they need to not have the precise to marry. These should not MY Tennessee values.”

A delegate wears a “Swiftie” hat throughout the Democratic Nationwide Conference (DNC) on the United Middle in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024.
Credit score: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures

On this election, these values stay most intently aligned with the Harris/Walz marketing campaign, which might search to codify reproductive rights for ladies and shield the LGBTQ group from gender and sexuality-based hate and violence. And Swift — who’s single, doesn’t have youngsters, and is a loud and proud proprietor of three cats — may take concern with previous feedback from Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance that known as Democratic leaders “a bunch of childless cat women who’re depressing at their very own lives and the alternatives that they’ve made and they also need to make the remainder of the nation depressing, too.” Swift’s followers have already pounced on the prospect of her reclaiming the label in a present of assist for Harris. As one X consumer put it, “hell hath no fury like a sure childless cat woman who has but to endorse a presidential candidate.”

Over the previous week, two developments have strengthened the argument for a Swift endorsement. On Aug. 20, the singer concluded the European leg of her billion-dollar Eras Tour and will not tour once more till October. Which means she may shift her focus to an endorsement within the interim. And on Aug. 18, Trump revealed AI-generated photographs of girls in “Swifties for Trump” shirts on his Fact Social account. Some steered that his accompanying caption, “I settle for,” implied that the artist had endorsed his marketing campaign. (The Trump marketing campaign didn’t reply to Mashable’s request for remark.) Swift, who’s notoriously litigious and fiercely protecting of her likeness, may see the transfer as a remaining straw. 

In fact, Trump himself is a lesson within the energy of fandom. Regardless of having no political expertise, a shady enterprise background, and a damning, decades-long report of racism and misogyny, he radicalized a riotous base to change into president. Now, even with just a few felonies beneath his belt, his marketing campaign continues to be alive and kicking. However can Trump’s cult of character outlast the pulsating tides of pop fandom? As one pop star places it, “Good luck, babe!”