Taylor Swift has announced she will be voting for Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election.
Posting to Instagram shortly after the presidential debate, Swift called vice-president and democratic nominee Harris a "steady-handed gifted leader".
"I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election," she said.
"I'm voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them."
Swift said she was compelled to share who she was voting for after AI material of her and her fans endorsing Donald Trump circulated online. Trump himself shared the deepfakes with the caption "I accept!" on his social platform Truth Social.
"It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation," Swift said in her post.
"It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.
"The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth."
Swift is widely seen as the biggest and most influential pop star in the world right now and her support this campaign has been the subject of intense speculation, with Trump himself bringing it up on social media.
In February, Trump wrote that he was "responsible for the Music Modernisation Act for Taylor Swift" and that President Joe Biden "didn't do anything for Taylor".
"There's no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money," he wrote.
"Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis [Kelce], even though he may be a liberal, and probably can't stand me!"
At the time, a conspiracy theory accusing Swift and Kelce of faking their relationship as part of a plot to bring Trump down was swirling online.
The singer has already proved she can have a major impact on politics.
In March 2023, she posted a short message on Instagram encouraging her then 272 million followers to register to vote.
Following the post, the website she directed her fans to — the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org — recorded more than 35,000 registrations, according to the organisation.
The singer said she was heartened and impressed by Harris's selection of running mate Tim Walz who she said "has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman's right to her own body for decades".
Tim Walz was on live TV as Swift posted her endorsement on Instagram, and MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow read it out to him.
"I'm incredibly grateful first of all to Taylor Swift as a fellow cat owner," he said.
"That was eloquent, and it was clear, and that is the type of courage we need in America to stand up.
"This would be the opportunity Swifties, Kamala Harris.com.
"Get on over there, give us a hand, get things going."
Swift urged voters to do their research in the lead up to the election.
"I've done my research, and I've made my choice.
"Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make."
She signed off as "Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady" which was a reference to comments made by Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, who in a 2021 interview called some Democrats "a bunch of childless cat ladies".
Today is not the first time Swift has endorsed a presidential candidate.
She threw her support behind Joe Biden in 2020, directly addressing Trump in a social media post saying: "We will vote you out in November."
Swift's started her career in country music when she was just a teenager, and in her early years of fame she was decidedly apolitical.
The turning point is chronicled in her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana.
The documentary shows Swift and her team debating her decision to endorse two Democrats who were running for office from Tennessee in the 2018 midterm elections, with Swift's father worrying that a political position could ruin her career.
"I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country," Swift wrote in a post on Instagram at the time.
Then-president Trump reacted by telling reporters: "Let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25 per cent less now, OK?"
Lauren Rosewarne from the University of Melbourne said while Swift has encouraged voter enrolment in the past, she may not sway the demographic Harris needs to attract.
"Whether Swift's endorsement changes voter intentions is difficult to determine," Dr Rosewarne said.
"We do however, need to keep in mind that Kamala Harris's supporter base already skews young and female — which is a similar fan base to Swift's.
"Whether therefore, her endorsement has the capacity to shift the views of people who weren't already in the Harris camp is yet to be determined.
"Harris's main problem lies with male voters: I'm not sure Swift moves them."
