The Taylor Swift factor: Does her Kamala Harris endorsement really matter?
'Fox & Friends First' co-host Carley Shimkus joined 'MediaBuzz' to discuss her take.
Caitlin Clark may have just won over more Taylor Swift fans than Kamala Harris has. And Clark didn't have to ask for any of it.
A viral resurfacing of a social media post Clark made when she was in college has sent a horde of aggressive new fans her way. In fact, it has made her the latest worshipped ally of the Swift army.
Clark originally made the post right after Swift went public with her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce in September 2023. Clark welcomed Swift to the Chiefs' fan family in the post.
"Taylor Swift welcome to the good side," Clark wrote Sept. 24, 2023, in a post on X with the hashtag "Chiefs Kingdom."
Clark has said she is a lifelong Chiefs fan, having grown up in suburban Iowa.
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Taylor Swift stands with Donna Kelce after the AFC championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
In the last 24 hours, multiple Taylor Swift fan pages across social media have recirculated Clark's tweet after a controversial podcast episode hosted by Clark's archrival, Angel Reese.
Reese hosted a woman named Kayla Nicole, who is a promotional model, media personality, on-air host and entertainment journalist popular on Instagram with more than 797,000 followers. It's a following that has been growing rapidly since the episode was posted Thursday, after Nicole went into personal detail about her romantic relationship with Kelce in the past and its heavy aftermath.
"We’ve seen each other in public spaces before, but it’s — I think that we’re both aware of the nature of his new situation that there’s just no room really for us to communicate or acknowledge each other publicly without it being spun into something crazy," Nicole said of Kelce and his new relationship with Swift.
Nicole also claimed she has received hate for the relationship ever since Kelce began to date Swift instead of her.
"I would be lying if I said that that level of hate and just, like, online chaos doesn’t impact me," Nicole said. "It does, even to this day. You can go to my most recent post, and it will be people debating each other why I am worthless, and I’ll never be a talented person and I have no career."
The comments have ignited a widely debated controversy on social media, with some defending Nicole and sympathizing with her for the alleged hate she has received. However, others, and many who openly identify as Swift fans, have been critical of Nicole and Reese for a diverse range of reasons.
Many of those same Swift fans have now declared themselves fans of Clark in response to Reese's interview. Clark and Reese have one of the hottest rivalries in women's sports at the moment, as their respective fan bases have been passionately opposed to each other for over a year. Now the Swift army is joining a side.
Angel Reese, right, and Caitlin Clark during the second half June 23, 2024, at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. (Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Clark and Reese have been linked to one another since they first met in the 2023 NCAA women's basketball championship. Reese famously mocked Clark at the end of that game when her LSU Tigers defeated Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes for the title, pointing to her finger in a taunting fashion to remind her who was getting the ring.
This sparked outrage from Clark's immense fan base, including Bartstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who called Reese "a piece of s---" in a widely circulated X post after Reese's gesture in the championship game.
They carried their rivalry into the pros this year, seen in four heated matchups between Clark's Indiana Fever and Reese's Chicago Sky. The four matchups included a series of controversial flagrant fouls against Clark by Reese and other Sky players. Reese smacked Clark in the head with her arm while trying to block a shot in their first WNBA meeting on June 1. One of Reese's teammates, Diamond DeShields, posted screenshots of hate comments she got after knocking Clark to the floor in their last meeting of the season on Aug. 30.
Clark and Reese have never acknowledged that there is a "feud" between. They've only made respectful comments about one another in interviews and press conferences. But he fans are a different story. The two groups have been notorious for attacking one another and the two players on social media since the NCAA championship game in 2023.
INSIDE CAITLIN CLARK AND ANGEL REESE'S IMPACT ON MEN'S BASKETBALL
Angel Reese, right, and Flau'jae Johnson of the LSU Lady Tigers react after a 79-72 victory over the Virginia Tech Hokies during the 2023 NCAA Women's Final Four at American Airlines Center March 31, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Reese has said Clark's fans have sent her death threats and made explicit AI images of her and sent them to her family.
"I think it's really just the fans, her fans, the Iowa fans, now the Indiana fans, that are really just, they ride for her, and I respect that, respectfully. But sometimes it's very disrespectful. I think there's a lot of racism when it comes to it," Reese said in the first episode of her podcast on Sept. 5.
Reese's latest episode caused even more controversy, having antagonized Swift fans. The criticism against Reese for hosting Kelce's ex prompted a response from the Sky rookie Friday afternoon.
"Hating pays too," Reese wrote in a post on X with emoji of painting toenails. The episode has attracted significant attention in the last day, which Reese will profit from as the podcast host.
Nicole isn't the first victim of hate comments from Swift fans either. Swift fans famously attacked another woman who was known for a relationship with a Chiefs star player. Brittany Mahomes, the wife of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, was the subject of a viral backlash for liking a post from Donald Trump's Instagram account Aug. 13.
The post outlined the former president's 2024 policy agenda. Swift fans were familiar with Mahomes for her friendship with Swift when they attended Chiefs games to watch Patrick Mahomes and Kelce play.
Many of those same Swift fans recirculated screenshots of Mahomes' like of the post, which made her the target of online attacks. Brittany, a pregnant mother of two, had to address the backlash multiple times through Instagram posts. It thrust her and her husband into the national political conversation amid a turbulent election cycle, as Swift has been a staunch supporter of Democrats.
After Swift endorsed Harris Sept. 10, Trump said he liked Brittany Mahomes more than Swift in a Fox News interview Sept. 11.
Patrick publicly commended his wife after Trump's comments that same day but refused to endorse a political candidate.
Swift's initial endorsement of Harris also drew a response from Clark, who liked Swift's Instagram post that announced the endorsement statement.
When asked why Clark liked that post, the basketball star did not endorse Harris but said she wanted to use her platform to encourage Americans to vote, echoing Patrick Mahomes' messaging. Reese hasn't endorsed Harris either, but did praise Michelle Obama for her speech at the DNC on Aug. 20 in a post on X.
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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark reacts during a first-round WNBA basketball playoff game against the Connecticut Sun Sept. 25, 2024, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
But now as more Swift fans turn to support Clark after Reese's interview, they will be joining a fan base that has drawn criticism for being out of line with Swift's values, at times. Some WNBA players, including Reese and Connecticut Sun player Alyssa Thomas, have accused the Indiana Fever fan base of racism, while Sun player DiJonai Carrington called the Fever fans "the nastiest fans in the [WNBA]."
Clark disavowed some of her own followers during the Fever's exit interviews on Sept. 27.
"Those aren't fans. Those are trolls," Clark said.
Now Clark is seemingly set to get more fans that are just there to oppose Reese, courtesy of rapid Swift fandom.
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