election 2020

Taylor Swift Lends Her Voice to Get-Out-the-Vote Ad

Continuing in her political efforts, Taylor Swift has lent her song “Only the Young” for use in an ad for California Democratic representative Eric Swalwell (you may remember “Only the Young” from Swift’s documentary, Miss Americana, which documented the singer coming into her political voice.) The ad, which is aimed at increasing youth-voter turnout, opens with a sound bite of Kamala Harris asking, “Why are so many powerful people trying to make it so difficult for us to vote?” As Swift’s song plays, footage of civil unrest and protests is rather pointedly juxtaposed with smiling pictures of Trump-administration officials. Smug headshots of Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham play over the lyric “And the big bad man and his big bad clan / Their hands are stained with red.” Look, the days of Swift hiding her political leanings in vague Instagram posts are behind us. Harris herself retweeted the ad, writing, “Thank you [Taylor Swift] and my friend [Eric Swalwell] for showing young people what’s at stake in this election.”

Taylor Swift Lends Her Voice to Get Out the Vote Ad