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Former Vice President Kamala Harris' doomed presidential campaign didn't just get rebuffed by pop star Taylor Swift - who never joined the Democratic nominee on the campaign trail - but it was rejected by Swift's fiancé, Travis Kelce, as well. In his new book, Retribution, ABC News' Jonathan Karl charted the 'increasingly desperate' ways in which Harris' campaign tried to shake up the trajectory of the 2024 race. The Daily Mail obtained an early copy of Karl's book. After the initial Democratic excitement for the party's new nominee, following President Joe Biden's exit from the race in July, Harris' advisers feared that President Donald Trump had built up an insurmountable lead in the final weeks. So they decided to think outside the box. Karl reported that Harris' team reached out to the New Heights podcast helmed by Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and his brother Jason, a retired Philadelphia Eagle. 'The Kelce brothers, however, rejected the offer, even though Travis’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, had endorsed Harris weeks earlier,' Karl wrote. 'Their producer explained they do sports, not politics.' Swift's endorsement of Harris - which came following her strong debate performance against Trump on September 10 - had surprised the vice president's campaign team. 'Neither Harris nor anyone on her campaign had any idea Swift's endorsement -arguably the biggest one she could get - was coming,' Karl wrote. 'If they had, they would have asked her to hold off for a day or two,' he continued. 'Coming when it did, the news could only do one of two things: get buried by Harris' dominant debate performance or distract from it.' As Harris headed to Philadelphia's Cherry Street Pier to address supporters at a watch party, her campaign quickly had to decide how she should handle the Swift news. They did so with just a slight nod. Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff exited the stage to Swift's 'The Man.' The crowd ate it up - with the expectation that Swift would eventually join the Democratic nominee on the campaign trail, maybe even help her in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania, where the pop star was born and spent her early years. But Swift never showed. 'The Harris campaign team tried to reach out to the pop star. Maybe she could appear in a campaign ad? Maybe she could perform at a campaign event? There were many possibilities - after all, Swift was massively popular with an important group of voters who could help Harris win the election: young women,' Karl wrote. 'But the Harris campaign got no answer,' he continued. 'They couldn't even get a response from Taylor Swift's spokesperson, Trina "Tree" Paine, sending her several messages but never receiving an answer.' Paine did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment. In the book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf wrote that Emhoff, who was a prominent Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer, had tried to use his connections to get Swift involved in his wife's campaign. 'Swift proved to be a special challenge. Staffers who worked on celebrity appearances were instructed not to make any outreach to her universe; Doug Emhoff was handling it,' the authors wrote. Emhoff reached out to Swift's lawyer, Doug Baldridge, as they were both partners at the law firm Venable, to 'convey that the campaign would appreciate any efforts the pop star could make to help Harris.' In a brutal seven-word rejection, Baldridge said: 'Swift would do what Swift thought best.' Swift has never publicly explained why she decided not to join Harris at any campaign appearances. Karl's book Retribution will be released Tuesday.
