Are You Ready For It? How Harris’ Campaign Is Marketing Taylor Swift’s Endorsement

The Kamala Harris campaign has fully embraced Taylor Swift’s debate night endorsement, in which the musician pledged her support to Harris and her running mate Minn. Gov. Tim Walz. The official Harris-Walz store soon began selling friendship bracelets with beads spelling out the words “Harris Walz 24” to capitalize on the attention. The purchase of the bracelets, which cost $20 each, is a donation to the Harris Victory Fund.

Friendship bracelets have been an important part of Swift’s record-breaking Era’s Tour, as Swifties often exchange them during the concerts. The origin is believed to come from a lyric in Swift’s 2022 song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” which features the lyric: “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.”

The Harris-Walz bracelets were initially available for pre-order—with an expected release date of Sept. 24—but they have already sold out. 

Elsewhere, the Harris-Walz ticket has been marketing the Swift endorsement via social media. The X (formerly Twitter) account @KamalaHQ, which is run by the Harris campaign, posted a response to Swift’s support—a video overlaid with the words “Kamala is ready for it,” referencing Swift’s hit 2017 song titled “…Ready For It?”

On Thursday, the Harris campaign’s social media accounts shared a clip of Swift’s 2017 song “I Did Something Bad,” with a montage of photos referencing her Republican opponent former President Donald Trump and their recent presidential debate. The excerpted lyrics—“I never trust a narcissist, but they love me, so I play ’em like a violin, and I make it look oh so easy”—included a callback to Trump’s “IS SHE TALKING ABOUT ME?” response to her DNC speech as well as commentary about how Harris during the debate, as TIME put it, deftly laid traps for Trump to walk into.

Footage showed Harris walking off the stage of a post-debate rally to Swift’s 2019 song “The Man.” The song details Swift’s perception of what her life would be like if she was a man and the challenges she would no longer face without the burden of sexism.

Swift’s endorsement came on Tuesday night, shortly after the debate.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift wrote in her Instagram post, which currently has over 10 million likes. “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Swift signed off the post by referring to herself as a “childless cat lady.” This was in reference to controversial comments made by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance in 2021, whereby he said the country is effectively run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”

Following Swift’s announcement, Walz embraced the singer’s support.

“I am incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift. I say that also as a cat owner—a fellow cat owner,” Walz said during a live TV interview after he found out about the endorsement. “That was eloquent and it was clear and that’s the type of courage we need in America to stand up.”

—Chad de Guzman contributed reporting.