After I finished watching the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, I almost immediately opened social media. I was mostly looking for the eating dogs and cats jokes. 

The first thing I saw when I opened Instagram was Taylor Swift’s endorsement of the Harris-Walz campaign.

Swift wrote in her caption, “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for (Harris) 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.” 

What struck me most about this post was not the caption itself, but the number of people I knew that had already liked it, seconds after it was posted. Opening Instagram again the next morning, several more people had reposted it to their Instagram stories. 

Swift’s endorsement also provided a link to vote.gov, a voter registration website, and following her post, more than 400,000 users visited the link, according to the New York Times. 

This is an example of the kind of power and platform Swift holds. However, her widespread impact is not just because of who she is, but rather, who her fans are. 

According to The Harris Poll, 52% of American women surveyed identify themselves as Taylor Swift fans, along with 66% of Millennials and 56% of Generation Z’ers. 

Ayan Mohamed, a second-year political science student at the University of Minnesota, said the type of reaction Swift received for her endorsement has a lot to do with her fan base demographics. 

“She’s been around for a really long time, so people have grown up with her,” Mohamed said. “She has been involved in feminist circles for a long time now, and her voice throughout those involvements has shown that.” 

I am not saying that Swift’s post will be the deciding factor for the election, but it carries much more weight than other celebrity endorsements because of who her audience is largely composed of: young women. 

Taylor Swift’s celebrity status seems almost transcendental of the time she is in, similar to artists such as Elvis, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles. The thing these figures all have in common is that their stardom was popularized by their largely young female fan bases. 

Whether you like it or not, women have played significant roles in giving the “greats” the reputations they have today. 

This significance also carries over into political participation. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, in almost every presidential election since 1980, women have voted at a higher rate than men. In every election since 1994, presidential and not, women have voted at higher rates specifically in the age demographic of 18 to 44. 

Jenna Monday, a fourth-year political science student, said the reason for this is simply because women have a lot more at stake. 

“I think definitely the MeToo movement and abortion rights are two big factors of why young female voters are getting involved and have kind of increased in activity in the past few years,” Monday said. “That’s their future, and something they are most likely going to want.” 

Mohamed added that female voters may have been inspired more recently by seeing the loss of a female presidential candidate in 2016.

“We saw the huge defeat that Hillary suffered in the 2016 election,” Mohamed said. “And we just saw how she’s been treated in general. So I feel like that really mobilized women to be like, ‘Oh, we have to vote for our rights.’”

Mohamed said this election is particularly significant for members of Gen Z. 

“I think this is the first election cycle, maybe the second, where a lot of us are of age to vote,” Mohamed said. “We’re very excited because we know now our vote matters. We have the numbers.” 

I may be biased, but as a young woman, we are by far the most important demographic in almost every arena. 

We care, and we show up. 

Elvis and The Beatles were before my time, but I would like to take a small amount of credit for One Direction’s rise to fame throughout the 2010s. 

We cannot be ignored, and you need us to be successful.