Trust Me, Kamala Harris Doesn't Want Chappell Roan's Endorsement
The Harris Walz campaign is paying young progressives dust
This week, I opened my For You page on TikTok to a string of videos on why Chappell Roan sucks. What is this blasphemy, you ask? The cancellation of her All Things Go performances didn’t help, but most of the videos were geared towards Roan’s political opinions. Notably, an interview in The Guardian where she didn’t endorse Kamala Harris.
“I have so many issues with our government in every way” she says. “There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides. I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote – vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.” The change she wants to see in the US in this election year, she says instantly, is “trans rights. They cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people, period.”
The online backlash was, of course, unhinged. People were calling Roan a “Republican” and using the fact that her uncle is a conservative legislator as a “gotcha.” It was another example of Blue MAGA — individuals who see anything less than a full throated endorsement of Democrats as a moral failure. Roan clarified her position in a bleary eyed TikTok. “Endorsing and voting are completely different,” she said. “Yeah I’m voting for fucking Kamala, but I’m not going to settle for the options that are in front of me.”
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It’s strange to me that Chappell Roan’s political beliefs would raise so much ire. Not only because I’m certain the venn diagram of Chappell Roan fans and Trump-curious voters is nonexistent, but because Roan has made it very clear what her politics are. She’s a queer woman, singing unapologetically about sex with regular references to drag in her work. She’s also spoken out against Palestinian genocide in a way few artists have. Even Taylor Swift, who endorsed Harris after the first debate, has remained silent on the issue despite having far more reach and industry pull than Roan. Roan’s political beliefs are clearly far from conservative, but it also makes sense that she wouldn’t rush to endorse the Harris Walz ticket. She represents a young progressive whose support Harris and Walz have taken for granted.
Ironically, momentum for Harris’ campaign originated with Gen Z—a flurry of coconut and Charli XCX memes. But since she officially became the nominee Harris has been very clear about who she really wants in the big Democratic tent. Instead of courting young people, Harris’ campaign has taken a conservative turn, including endorsements from Republicans like Dick Cheney, former Regan staffers, and former Trump employees Anthony Scaramucci and Stephanie Grisham. The Harris campaign followed this up with rhetorical and policy moves, clearly designed to attract moderate and Republican voters. During the first presidential debate, Harris stated she won’t ban fracking, a reversal of her previous position. Her lip service to Palestinian self-determination is undercut by her commitment to Israel’s “right to defend itself” and refusal to stop sending them arms. She also touted her status as a gun owner but remained silent about the death penalty.
Rather than dogging Roan about why she won’t support Harris, why not ask Harris why her campaign has made so little effort to earn the support of Roan and people like her. The situation speaks to my long held belief that Trump and an extreme right wing Republican party isn’t merely a conservative epidemic, it’s a politics-wide disease. Under the gun of a Christian nationalist wannabe dictator, almost any candidate looks better by comparison. Politicians, including Democrats, are all too happy to sink just above that lowest common denominator. They get the benefits of maintaining moderate policies, and the benefits of mainstream donors, while still claiming the moral high ground. In every election for the past eight years the soul of America has been on the line. These high stakes are an excellent excuse for forgiving a candidate’s shortcomings, leaving progressives like Roan stuck begrudgingly voting for the lesser of two evils. TL;DR what worries me is not Roan’s opinions, but the inability for others to recognize that Roan is pointing to a widening tear in the fabric of American politics. The center may be white-knuckling it at the moment, but it will not hold.