Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for a variety of reasons: Their reported chemistry in interviews, his viral weird claim that took over the discourse, and his folksy, Midwestern appeal.
But she may have also accidentally activated the internet’s most vocal fandom.
That’s because Walz is a Swiftie.
In his tenure as governor of Minnesota, Walz proclaimed June 23 and 24—the days Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” visited the state—as “Taylor Swift Days” in 2023.
Even more relatable to Swifties, Walz griped in November 2022 about how difficult it was to score “Eras Tour” tickets.
“Afton after being online all day and not getting Taylor Swift tickets,” Walz tweeted at the time, alongside a photo of his cat, Afton, screaming.
During the Eras Tour presale, Ticketmaster enraged Swifties with its byzantine pricing schemes and lack of access, prompting an FTC investigation.
He then signed HF 1989, aptly named after one of Swift’s albums, into law, which forces ticket vendors to disclose all ticket fees upfront and prohibits deceptive reselling and bots from buying tickets en masse, turning his and others tangible frustration into law.
“Whether it’s a Timberwolves game or a Taylor Swift concert,” Walz tweeted in May, “you deserve transparency around pricing when buying tickets online.”
Swifties are now flooding the comments of Walz’s Swift-focused tweets with praise and support.
“THE BEST VP CANDIDATE OMG,” a Swift fan responded to Walz’s tweet about his cat.
“YASSSSSSSS A SWIFTIE,” another Swiftie tweeted.
One Swiftie deemed Walz an official Swiftie by responding with “#OneOfUs.”
Walz even got a shoutout from Swifties for Kamala, a coalition of Swift fans who are working to get Harris—and now Walz—elected in November.
“A proclamation for ‘Taylor Swift Days’? That’s our man!” @SwiftiesForKamala tweeted today.
Swift’s own relationship to politics has ebbed and flowed: She endorsed former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen in 2018 in his Senate race against Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and made cookies that said “Biden Harris 2020” to show support for President Joe Biden and Harris in their bid for the White House in 2020.
But she’s yet to endorse anyone in the 2024 election, though earlier this year Republicans seemed convinced she was all in for Biden when he was still running for a second term.
And her political power cannot be understated. More than 35,000 people registered to vote after she posted about voter registration on her Instagram, and she’s thought to be a catalyst for increased voter turnout.
Numerous people have speculated Swift eventually will come out for Harris, possibly even performing before the election. And while it’s likely Walz will enthusiastically campaign for Harris regardless, this could all just have been a long play to get up close to the eventual show.
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