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After much anticipation, Taylor Swift officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president mere minutes after the first debate ended. And, right on cue, the Harris campaign began selling Harris-Walz friendship bracelets and played Swift’s “The Man” at a post-debate party. It all seems to suggest there was some level of coordination going on.
Up until now, Swift had been pretty quiet about her political leanings this election year, even as Swifties for Kamala were already organizing without her. People especially expected her to react to the AI-generated image of her supposedly endorsing Donald Trump, or JD Vance’s “childless cat lady” comment. When she didn’t, eventually, people began to wonder if she was going to endorse at all.
It turns out, she was just waiting for exactly the right moment, and the timing was almost too perfect. In her statement, posted to Instagram, Swift said, “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. 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.”
Then, the official Harris-Walz campaign website began selling its friendship bracelets, a reference to the friendship bracelets Swifties share with one another at her concerts. The Harris bracelets are blue and black, and say both candidates’ names on them. Unfortunately, they are already sold out.
The campaign has used pop culture in their political messaging before (see: the Midwest Princess-inspired hat, and the brat memes), but this would have been next-level fast in terms of response time. So it’s no wonder that people suspect that the timing was planned. “I have no doubt that the Harris-Walz team and Taylor strategized together when her endorsement would have the largest impact. These are two of the most strategic organizations we’ve ever seen,” tweeted one observer. Another person wrote, “if you think that all of the stuff with Taylor Swift and the Harris-Walz campaign wasn’t pre-planned and discussed with the two of them, you just aren’t paying attention.”
Originally Appeared on Glamour