MSNBC’s Ari Melber Argues Taylor Swift Could Swing the 2024 Election

Taylor Swift is kind of a big deal. No, really — her Eras Tour literally impacted the United States economy. And when she finally broke her silence on where she stood politically during the 2020 election season, it made thousands of her fans get registered to vote. Her reach goes far and wide, and MSNBC’s Ari Melber outlined how he thinks another public statement on her political values could sway the 2024 election.

During Wednesday’s edition of The Beat with Ari Melber, the host set the stage with a clip from Swift’s Netflix documentary Miss Americana in which she stands her ground on the 2020 race, saying, “These aren’t your dad’s celebrities. These aren’t your dad’s Republicans.” But before that, in 2018, Swift had broken her political silence on Instagram to endorse two Tennessee Democrats in the midterms. For the sake of her fans, she had remained neutral. But as she explained to Variety, this time called for something bold:

This was a situation where, from a humanity perspective, and from what my moral compass was telling me I needed to do, I knew I was right, and I really didn’t care about repercussions.

Those Democrats lost, but that was in a deep red state. Melber believes that Swift’s influence is so broad that a statement coming from her could get young voters — especially those who share her values, of which there are many —  to rally behind even elder statesman President Joe Biden:

Now, there are themes that endure here that have nothing to do with Miss Swift or this moment. For example, artists for thousands of years have connected deeply with a broad number of people, including people who consume their work and never meet them personally. That was true even before modern media, and is especially true when artists represent something that is seen as their authentic priorities. Whether that’s your favorite singer or favorite writer or any medium. What is different now, and this is going to bring us to the Biden campaign, is actually that the methods are changing rapidly. Artists today actually have more power, autonomy and reach for their message than the Woodstock era.

Then, Melber whipped out a bar graph showing MSNBC’s comparatively humble reach compared to Swift’s sizeable one:

Cable news can reach anywhere from 4 to 10 million people per night over a given monthly stretch. That’s an average, and it’s just a rough ballpark of multiple channels. Swift streaming reach is 100 million through Spotify and other platforms. Meanwhile, her social media following has many tens of millions of fans. So when she says “do something, check something out,” whether that’s “register to vote” or “look at this video,” she is reaching people in a way that is far broader than any other artists in earlier digital eras.

Cable news outlets shouldn’t be telling people for whom they should vote, but that’s another story for another day.

The point is that despite Biden’s age, his administration is in touch with the cultural zeitgeist. They know how to use it as a tool to reach the young voters that won him the election the first time. Republicans are also no slouches when it comes to social media, so these tools are at their disposal as well. But something Biden and Democrats may have that the GOP doesn’t is the support of Taylor Swift, who can work a very, very powerful microphone with a voice that can fill giant stadiums and reach even further — and even cause earthquakes.

Watch the video above via MSNBC. You can also watch an extended version on MSNBC’s YouTube channel.