Venisha Jardin, 17, said she appreciated that Ms. Swift had spoken out in the past about some political matters, but that her endorsements had not swayed her opinions. (Ms. Jardin, from Florida, will turn 18 just a few weeks too late to vote in the 2024 election.)
Mickayla LeMaster, 22, who lives in Anchorage, said she hadn’t always agreed with Ms. Swift’s endorsements, but that did not dissuade her from supporting the artist’s music. She said Ms. Swift’s endorsement of Mr. Biden in 2020 left her feeling “indifferent.”
“I thought it was interesting that she was on Biden’s side of things,” said Ms. LeMaster, who works in the tourism industry. (Ms. LeMaster added that she had not voted in the last election and described the recent theories about Ms. Swift as “absolute madness.”)
Stacey Peasley, 41, found the recent wave of conspiracy theories to be “far-fetched.”
“Whether it’s her music, her tour, her movie, her boyfriend, the N.F.L., whatever it is, everybody’s eyes are on her and she’s a very good target right now to get attention,” Ms. Peasley, a workers’ compensation supervisor in Salem, Ore., said. “That’s what it is. It’s just for the attention for the news media.”
“She’s getting under their skin,” said Kandace Montgomery, a financial crimes investigator in Portland, Ore. “It makes me truly happy that, like, this one individual, this blond girl, female pop star is pissing off these, like, big right wing groups — the dads, Brads and Chads.” (Ms. Swift has drawn criticism from some football fans who claim she is shown too frequently during the games she attends. “I’m just there to support Travis,” Ms. Swift told Time magazine in December. “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads and Chads.”)
The increased conservative attention on Ms. Swift might be having an unintended effect, Ms. Montgomery, 36, added.
“All they’re doing is putting Taylor in their mouth, they’re putting Taylor on their platform,’” Ms. Montgomery said. “And then more people are going to look up, ‘What is Taylor Swift’s political affiliation? What are her thoughts on politics?’”
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