Bad blood with Republicans drives a decline in Taylor Swift's poll numbers

Republican views of Taylor Swift have taken a nosedive in comparison to last year, a new NBC News poll shows, weeks after the pop singer announced her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

About 47% of Republicans say they view Swift negatively in a poll conducted days after her presidential endorsement, a sharp uptick from the 26% who reported viewing her negatively in NBC’s Nov. 2023 poll, the last time she was included in the survey. Just 12% of Republicans report positive attitudes toward the singer, down from 28% last year. 

Among Democrats, 58% view Swift in a positive light, a slight increase from 53% in 2023. About 26% of independents have a positive attitude toward Swift, a drop from 34% in 2023.

The significant shift from Republican voters has pushed Swift’s overall favorability rating among registered voters lower than last year, decreasing from 40% in 2023 to 33% this year. While 16% had negative feelings about her in 2023, 27% say they do now. 

"Who's afraid of little old me? Republicans," Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, the Democratic pollster who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, said of Swift. "Her personal ratings have dropped from +2 to -35 among Republicans."

"A good lesson that it's better to be a tortured poet than a tortured figure in the political arena," Horwitt continued.

The pop star endorsed Harris in a post on Instagram following her first and possibly only debate with former President Donald Trump earlier this month, calling the vice president a “steady-handed, gifted leader.” Swift signed the post “Childless Cat Lady,” a jab at comments from Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, referring to women in positions of power who don’t have children.

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Swift’s endorsement also denounced Trump’s use of an AI-generated image of her, which depicted the pop singer endorsing the former president, saying she hoped her endorsement of Harris combated any misinformation spread online. 

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“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in the endorsement.

A few days later, Trump took to Truth Social, writing “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

Harris has played up the Swift endorsement, playing the singer’s 2019 hit “The Man” at a post-debate party later that night and commending her “courage” in an interview last week. 

The national NBC News poll was conducted Sept. 13-17 of 1,000 registered voters — 870 of whom were reached via cellphone — and it has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.