American pop star Taylor Swift has inadvertently become part of Argentina’s upcoming November 19 presidential runoff election as leftist fans of the superstar launched a campaign urging fellow “Swifties” not to vote for libertarian economist Javier Milei.
Argentina’s electorate will head to the polls on Sunday, November 19, to choose between outsider candidate Milei and socialist current Economy Minister Sergio Massa.
Swift is presently in Argentina as part of “The Eras Tour,” scheduled to perform three concerts in Buenos Aires between November 9 and 11 — the first time the superstar is performing in the South American nation. “Swifties,” members of the singer’s devoted fandom, have reportedly camped outside Buenos Aires’ River Plate Monumental stadium since June in preparation for Thursday’s concert, which reportedly attracted around 70,000 attendees.
Left-leaning “Swifties” have sought to weaponize their devotion to Swift to aid Massa in the presidential runoff.
Swift fans arriving at the stadium were met with posters outside the concert’s entrance on Thursday, reading, “A Swiftie Doesn’t Vote Milei” and featuring the hashtag #MileiesTrump, which translates to “Milei is Trump,” referencing the former Republican U.S. president whom Swift has been critical of in the past.
A sign reads “Swift does not vote for Milei,” referring to presidential candidate Javier Milei, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
“Today, this poster is because Taylor, in her country, campaigns against Trump. Why would I vote today here in Argentina for Milei?” a man holding a sign that read, “Swift would not vote for Milei,” told Argentina’s Todo Noticias news channel. “I feel that he [Milei] has the same ultra-right policies, being sexist, misogynist, lgbt-phobic.”
Milei is a libertarian who supports gay marriage and has described feminism as “originally a libertarian cause.”
“The ultra right-wing destroys everything it touches, so let’s hope that people will come to their senses and that it will be what it has to be and that on the 19th, we will vote with conscience and with Argentinity because we are a great country,” he continued.
Argentine newspaper La Nación reported on Friday that in its conversations with “Swifties,” it discovered that the group is not a consolidated pro-Massa voting bloc. Some fans support either candidate, while others describe themselves as undecided or expecting to cast a blank vote. Voting is mandatory for all members of Argentina’s electorate, and failure to participate can result in small fines unless citizens can properly justify their lack of participation.
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The first round of Argentina’s 2023 presidential election, held in October, saw Massa obtain a surprising 37 percent of the votes against Milei’s 30 percent. The results automatically triggered the upcoming November 19 runoff election as none of the five competing candidates passed the required vote threshold to win in the first round.
Argentina’s presidential race unfolds with the nation undergoing a severe economic and societal meltdown marked by more than 130 percent inflation, a crumbling national currency, near-depleted foreign reserves, and a significant increase in Chinese influence and pressure on some of the nation’s strategic key sectors. All of Argentina’s crises have either begun or dramatically worsened during Massa’s tenure as economy minister in the outgoing leftist government of Alberto Fernández.
The results of October’s presidential first round — specifically Massa’s surprising electoral performance given his disastrous track record as economy minister — prompted a drastic shakedown of the nation’s political chessboard.
Patricia Bullrich, an establishment center-right presidential candidate who came in third place, pledged her support to Milei in late October alongside former President Mauricio Macri, joining forces to prevent a potential leftist Massa administration. Bullrich’s pledge effectively dissolved the Together for Change (JxC) coalition, which, up to that point, was the main opposition coalition against Fernández’s leftist presidency.
The presidential race between Milei and Massa remains very close and is presently considered a toss-up. While certain polls show either Milei or Massa in the lead, the difference is still too close to determine a clear winner ahead of November 19’s electoral event.
The “struggle” of Argentine left-leaning “Swifties” against Milei reportedly began right after October’s presidential first-round election. Local media reported at the time that a letter allegedly penned by Argentina’s “Swiftie” community urged its members to vote against Milei and to be on “the right side of history,” echoing words espoused by Swift in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.
Leftist heads of state and presidents in the Western hemisphere are particularly fond of Taylor Swift, such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who personally pleaded with Swift to tour in Canada.
In Latin America, the most notable case is Chilean far-left President Gabriel Boric, an openly declared “Swiftie.”
🇱| Gabriel Boric, who is a huge Swiftie, has won the presidential election in Chile! pic.twitter.com/EINH5X4tc6
— Taylor Swift Updates (@swifferupdates) December 20, 2021
In June, in a video published on his official Instagram account, Boric said he had directly sent a message to Taylor Swift asking Chile to be included in her ongoing Eras Tour. Swift’s current tour only includes venues in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.