‘Bad Blood’ in Virginia Governor’s Race as McAuliffe Targets Taylor Swift Fans
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Virginia gubernatorial candidates Glenn Youngkin (R) and Terry McAuliffe (D) have been working tirelessly over the past week to win over singer-songwriter Taylor Swift‘s fan base.
Axios reported on Tuesday that the McAuliffe campaign launched digital ads linking Youngkin to Scooter Braun, a record executive who controversially acquired Swift’s master recordings of her first six albums in 2019. Swift has called Braun an “incessant, manipulative bully” and said he had prevented her from using or performing her older songs on multiple occasions. (Braun has disputed Swift’s account and has since sold the masters to an investment fund).
The ads, which will be targeted to individuals googling Swift in Virginia, note that Youngkin formerly served as the co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, which helped finance the deal.
“I’m especially asking for help from the Carlyle Group, who put up the money for the sale of my music to these two men. I just want to be able to perform my own music,” Swift wrote on Twitter in 2019.
Interestingly enough, McAuliffe has limited ties to the Carlyle Group himself. A spokesperson for the former governor told Axios that he “was as a passive investor at Carlyle, and did not have any investments associated with Taylor Swift’s masters.”
A spokesperson for Youngkin blasted the ads in a statement to NBC4 Washington, claiming that he “reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he’s rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks.
The Democratic Party of Virginia piggy-backed off the ads, tweeting on Wednesday that “there’s bad blood” between Youngkin and Swift — a reference to one of Swift’s songs acquired by Braun.
“Glenn has made clear that he will rip anyone off in order to make a profit,” the Virginia Democrats posted. “If he’ll do this to Taylor Swift –– he’ll do it to Virginians.”
The Democratic Party of Virginia also created a page on its store titled “Swifties Against Youngkin,” where supporters could purchase buttons, sweatshirts, hats, and other Swift-themed merchandise.
However, that page mysteriously vanished and a spokesperson for the group declined to comment when asked why by the Washingtonian. Now, when users try to access the URL, they’re left with an error message.
A screenshot from the Wayback Machine shows what was once advertised on the site.
It was not immediately clear why the merchandise was no longer available for purchase.
A source familiar with the matter told Rolling Stone that the items were removed due to Swift holding a trademark on the term “Swifties.” The source said they were not aware of any request from Swift’s team to take down the items, but did so out of an abundance of caution.
However, some people were quick to note the irony of advertising off the Braun controversy, given his prolific history of donating to Democratic causes, including at one point, directly to the Democratic Party of Virginia.
According to Open Secrets, in 2020, Braun donated $35,500 to the DNC, $2,800 to Joe Biden, and $4,113 to the Virginia Democratic Party (and a number of other states as well).
However, the Virginia Democrats might have taken down the merchandise, but they have not moved entirely away from the pro-Swiftie messaging.
In separate email sent Friday night — after the merchandise had been removed — both the Virginia Democrats and McAuliffe’s campaign reiterated Youngkin’s ties to Braun.
