1 in 5 Republicans think Taylor Swift is a political activist

According to a new poll, one in five Republicans believes Taylor Swift is a left-wing political activist.

Sports statistics database Oddspedia surveyed 3,000 people across America in the run-up to the November 2024 general election to learn about their views on conspiracy theories.

They found that Republicans (35 percent) are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than Democrats (14 percent) and independent voters (20 percent). People in Florida, California, Texas, Alabama and New York are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than in other states.

The website also found that the most popular conspiracy theories revolved around government, health manipulation (such as anti-vaccine conspiracy theories), and belief in secret societies that influence world politics.

90 percent of respondents said that conspiracy theories can influence the public’s perception of political candidates. 21 percent of Republicans – about one in five – are convinced that Taylor Swift is a political activist. By comparison, 5 percent of Democrats suspect that the Grammy winner is secretly plotting for the government.

The conspiracy theory began circulating online in February, as the Kansas City Chiefs were heading to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII. Swift began dating the team’s tight end, Travis Kelce, in July 2023.

The couple went public with their relationship in September and their romance took over social media feeds and television screens. The 34-year-old singer became a fixture at Chiefs games, leading to a surge in female viewership for the NFL.

Because the pop star has voted Democrat in the past — in 2020, he supported Joe Biden — and Kelce is partnering with pharmaceutical company Pfizer, unsubstantiated claims went viral that their romance was a hoax to convince fans to vote for Biden.

Swift’s political influence has been demonstrated in the past. In September, the “Lover” singer urged her millions of Instagram followers to register to vote, directing them to the nonpartisan registration site Vote.org.

Immediately after Swift’s post, the site saw a significant increase in signups, with over 35,000 new registrations in one day.

Many conspiracy theorists also suspected that the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory was a set-up to lure voters to the left. After the Chiefs’ 25-22 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, even Biden joked about the rumors on X, formerly Twitter.

“Just like we dreamed it up,” the president said, sharing the “Dark Brandon” meme. The internet trend involved editing photos of the 81-year-old to make him look menacing, such as adding laser eyes.

Despite the lack of evidence, Oddspedia found that 83 percent of Americans believe conspiracy theories influence public opinion on political issues, while 70 percent of respondents said Facebook and Twitter are the main platforms for spreading misinformation.

Study results support the assumption that conspiracy theories are particularly widespread on X. The social network formerly known as Twitter was bought by Elon Musk in 2022.

In 2023, the European Union’s report on the Code of Practice against Disinformation noted that the platform was the biggest source of fake news, but also called on Google, Meta/Facebook, TikTok and Microsoft to do more to combat misinformation.