15 celebrities who got political in 2018

4. Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift made political headlines in 2018 not just because she endorsed a candidate running for office in her home state of Tennessee, but because she’d been so tight lipped about her political leanings for years.

Swift, it seems, had initially accepted the idea that artists and celebrities are better off keeping their mouths shut. It kind of makes sense if you’re, say, a young artist starting out in a sort of pop-country vein. Perhaps you think those potential fans of yours are more likely to be conservative or right-leaning. Anyway, that might be the case for young fans’ parents, who would prevent be the ones playing their kid’s album purchase, anyway.

And, from the audience perspective, there was always the chance that Swift herself was one of those quietly Republican celebrities. She hasn’t said anything, after all, which could mean that she didn’t want to stick out, politically speaking. There was also the early country-infused schtick, which included songs that compared Swift’s innocent persona to “other” girls who instead tended towards short skirts and boy-craziness. Was that a sign?

Not exactly, since it’s never one hundred percent fair to judge a person’s closely-held beliefs based on a catchy pop song, especially if said song was practically created in a lab to appeal to half the population.

At any rate, Swift broke the seal in the run up to the 2018 midterm elections on the United States. For the first time, on October 7, she publicly supported House of Representatives candidate Jim Cooper. Swift also took the opportunity to speak out against Cooper’s Republican opponent, Marsha Blackburn. It didn’t really work, given that Swift’s fellow Tennesseans voted Blackburn into office over Cooper. Still, Swift made the news simply for saying something. Even if you think that’s worthy of little more than an eye roll, the moment remains notable.