‘A National Treasure’: Cheney Comes Out As A Swiftie
While former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) might not be anyone’s first choice as a source for pop culture analysis, she appears to have been drawn into a spreading national obsession with pro-abortion singer Taylor Swift.
In addition to music, the 2023 Time “Person of the Year” made her mark in the realms of cinema and even sports last year — and Democrats are reportedly eager to rope her into the political fray ahead of November’s presidential election.
Swift endorsed then-nominee Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election and the president’s re-election campaign is keen on securing her endorsement this year, too.
Since the backing of the pop superstar could potentially increase Biden’s chances against likely general election rival former President Donald Trump, the notoriously anti-Trump Cheney felt it necessary to express her appreciation for the singer.
“Taylor Swift is a national treasure,” she wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.
One recent poll found that nearly one-fifth of voters would be more likely to support a candidate who had received a Swift endorsement.
As communications consultant James Haggerty opined: “She’s influenced popular culture, sports, the economics of entire regions of the U.S., so why not politics and elections?”
It is unclear to what extent her endorsement of Biden might have played four years ago, but there is little doubt that she has become an even more powerful cultural force since then.
“The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included,” she insisted when endorsing Biden weeks before the 2020 election. “Everyone deserves a government that takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of its people first. The only way we can begin to make things better is to choose leaders who are willing to face these issues and find ways to work through them.”
In September, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom seemed to encourage Swift to direct her fans to vote for Biden this year.
“What she was able to accomplish just in getting young people activated to consider that they have a voice and that they should have a choice in the next election, I think, is profoundly powerful,” he said.
