Pop star Taylor Swift notched the highest net favorability rating of any figure tested in the latest NBC News national poll, with 40% of registered voters saying they have a positive view of Swift, versus only 16% holding a negative opinion.
Seventeen percent of those surveyed reported having “very positive” views of Swift, while 22% had “somewhat positive” views.
Meanwhile, just 9% reported having “very negative” views, with 7% saying they have “somewhat negative” views of her.
Swift is overwhelmingly well-known among voters. Ninety-four percent recognized her name when they were asked about her.
Among all of the figures and groups tested in the poll — including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, new House Speaker Mike Johnson, former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — Swift had the highest net favorability rating.
The poll also tested voters’ views of pop singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.
Beyoncé, the “Single Ladies” vocalist, had a high name ID similar to Swift’s — 92% of voters know who she is. And 33% of voters reported positive views of her, while 40% said they view her neutrally and 20% said they have negative views of her.
‘Bad Blood’ among one group
Both women had higher negative ratings from one group: Republicans. Thirty-four percent of GOP voters said they view Beyoncé negatively, while 16% said they view her positively.
Swift has a net positive rating among GOP voters, albeit by a small margin.
Twenty-eight percent of Republicans say they view her positively, while 26% say they view her negatively.
By contrast, 52% of Democrats view Beyoncé positively, and 53% view Swift positively.
Just 5% of Democrats give each singer negative ratings.
Swift’s highest positive ratings came from Democrats, but another subgroup — women — also rated her especially highly. Forty-four percent of all female voters surveyed said they view her positively, and 15% said they have negative views of her.
Black voters gave Beyoncé the highest favorability ratings, with 57% saying they view her favorably and just 11% saying they view her negatively.
‘Long Live’ the notoriety
Both singers have been popular for decades, and they each attracted thousands of fans spanning all ages to their popular Eras and Renaissance tours this year.
Recently, Swift has also drawn headlines because of her budding romance with football player Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Neither Swift nor Beyoncé have ever run for office or indicated that they ever would, though they’ve each dipped a toe in politics in some way.
In 2018, Swift endorsed a pair of Tennessee Democrats in the midterm elections: then-Rep. Jim Cooper for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District and Phil Bredesen for the Senate as he ran against now-Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Cooper went on to win his re-election race, while Bredesen lost.
And in 2013, Beyoncé performed the national anthem at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
Still, both singers remain wildly popular and recognizable figures among the American electorate.
The pair “have the ability and influence to reach Americans in ways that our national leaders cannot,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research, who conducted the poll alongside Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies. “They may tell us to look back at 2023 and advise us all to, respectively, put the year ‘in a box to the left’ and ‘shake it off’ to get ready for a wild ride in 2024.”
