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Taylor Swift is the new soundtrack of the Biden-Harris campaign

A woman singing into a microphone
A Taylor Swift song was recently featured in a campaign ad for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
(Joel C Ryan / Invision / AP)
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With one more day until the presidential election, Taylor Swift knows America isn’t out of the woods yet.

On Friday, the Democratic Party debuted a new campaign advertisement for former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris featuring Swift’s song “Only the Young” in an effort to engage young voters.

The brief clip opens with a message from Harris questioning, “Why are so many powerful people trying to make it so difficult for us to vote?” before launching into a montage set to the tune of Swift’s 2020 “Miss Americana” anthem.

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“It keeps me awake, the look on your face / The moment you heard the news,” she sings as images of people’s tearful reactions to the 2016 presidential election results flash across the screen. “You’re screaming inside / You’re frozen in time / You did all that you could do.”

What follows is a visual summary of the last four years: #MeToo founder Tarana Burke leading a demonstration, COVID-19 hospitalizations, migrant children suffering at the U.S.-Mexico border, First Lady Melania Trump’s infamous “I don’t really care” jacket, Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation, police violence against Black Lives Matter protesters and wildfires ravaging California.

Massive concert rallies are out, but as election looms, Cardi B, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Madonna and Billie Eilish urge their fans to vote for Joe Biden.

Oct. 12, 2020

“They aren’t gonna help us / Too busy helping themselves,” Swift sings. “They aren’t gonna change this / We gotta do it ourselves / They think that it’s over / But it’s only begun / Only one thing can save us / Only the young.”

Cue the slideshow of Americans showing off their “I Voted” stickers and traveling to the polls; youthful activists rallying against gun and police violence; crowds marching for LGBTQ Pride; and snapshots of American heroes such as Georgia Rep. John Lewis and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fighting for change.

“You’ve marched for four years,” the ad reads. “Now it’s time to run. #ClimateChangeIsReal #Good Trouble #MeToo #BlackLivesMatter #WeThePeople #ICantBreathe #NovemberIsComing #TheRemedyIsUsNow #EndGunViolence #1619 #Juneteenth #WearAMask #EnoughIsEnough #BidenHarris2020 #SaveUSPS #VOTE.”

Shortly after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) shared the clip on Twitter, Harris retweeted it with words of gratitude for him and Swift.

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“Thank you @TaylorSwift and my friend @EricSwalwell for showing young people what’s at stake in this election,” she wrote in her tweet, which has amassed more than 112,000 likes.

After drawing sharp criticism for staying silent in 2016, Swift has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration and supporter of the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020. Last month — to no one’s surprise — she officially endorsed the Democratic candidates in an interview with V Magazine.

“The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included,” she told V.

“Everyone deserves a government that takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of its people first. The only way we can begin to make things better is to choose leaders who are willing to face these issues and find ways to work through them.”

Her song “Only the Young” was originally featured in her 2020 Netflix documentary, “Miss Americana,” which saw the artist regret failing to speak out against Trump four years ago.

“But I can’t change that,” she tells her family and publicity team. “I need to do this. I need you ... to forgive me for doing it — because I’m doing it.”

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