Critical thinking skills are at an all time low, so Chappell Roan is once again clarifying her stance on the 2024 presidential election. After days of being accused of supporting Donald Trump because she wouldn’t explicitly endorse Kamala Harris, the musician published a TikTok clarifying her position: “Actions speak louder than words and actions speak louder than an endorsement.” But even that wasn’t enough. When Roan woke up this morning, she was still being inundated with so much pushback that she made a second TikTok video expressing her frustration with the options being offered in the election.
“Endorsing and voting are completely different,” Roan said in the video. “I don’t agree with a lot of what is going on with policies. Honestly, fuck the policies of the right — but also fuck some of the policies on the left. That’s why I can’t endorse. That’s why I can’t put my entire name, my entire project behind one. There is no way I can stand behind some of the left’s completely transphobic and completely genocidal views. So, yeah, there are huge problems on both. You know what is right and wrong, and so do I.”
Moving into the closest thing to an endorsement as anyone is going to get from her, she added: “Fuck Trump for fucking real. But fuck some of the shit that has gone down in the Democratic party that has failed people like me and you — and more so Palestine and more so every marginalized community in the world. No, I’m not gonna settle for the options that are in front of me. And you’re not gonna make me feel bad for that. So yeah, I’m voting for fucking Kamala. But I’m not settling for what has been offered, because that’s questionable.”
In the years before she became what might look to some outsiders as an overnight success, Roan has rooted her entire personal and creative identity in a fight for the rights of marginalized communities. In her recent Rolling Stone cover story, she said: “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community. My ethics and values will always align with that.” In that same interview, she added: “I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historical time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee.”
But it was Roan’s comment in a recent interview with The Guardian that began circulating online this week and planted the seeds for the misinterpretation that led to these two clarifying TikToks. “I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides,” she said. “I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, use your vote — vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city.” The comments were often presented without the context of the remainder of her quote, which included her prioritizing trans rights in this year’s election. “They cannot have cis people making decisions for trans people, period,” she said.
In her latest TikTok post, Roan also took aim at the importance being placed on public figures to provide their endorsement. “If someone is publicly endorsing a political figure, that doesn’t even mean that they’re gonna fucking vote for them,” she said. “Because, as I said in my other video, actions speak louder than words. This is not me playing both sides. This is me questioning both sides because this is what we have. So if you look at my statement, and you’re still like, ‘She’s just playing both sides,’ you’re not getting it. I’m critiquing both sides because they’re both so fucked up.”
She concluded: “Voting is all we have right now in this system, and so I encourage it. Yet again, vote for who in your mind is the best option for what we have. It’s all we can do. And I hope this makes it clear that, no, I’m not picking the sides of what we have right now. Yes, one’s obviously better than the other. But Jesus fucking Christ, I hope you don’t settle for what we have and put your name behind someone that you don’t fully, fully trust because of their blatant actions.”
