The 2024 Election Is All About Cats Right Meow

WASHINGTON ― Politics can often be a dog-eat-dog world, but this campaign season has truly gone to the cats.

The cat-crazed 2024 election reached a fever pitch Tuesday night when, during his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump repeated a baseless and racist claim that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets, including their cats.

“The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said, as Harris ― along with much of the U.S., collectively ― shook her head in disbelief.

Then, moments after the debate ended, one of the world’s most famous cat ladies, pop megastar Taylor Swift, broke her silenceon the presidential race and offered an endorsement of Harris. “With love and hope, Taylor Swift[,] Childless Cat Lady,” Swift wroteon Instagram, below an iconic photo with one of her cats, a fluffy ragdoll named Benjamin Button.

If recent election cycles were defined by dogs — whether by Trump calling someone a “dog” or Mitt Romney’s actual dog riding on the roof of the family car — the 2024 election, defined by an historic woman atop the Democratic ticket, is decidedly more feline.

“Cats have never gotten their credit, and it’s part of what’s going on now with all the cat stuff online and the ‘cat ladies,’” said Paul Koudounaris , the author of “A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History,” which is narrated by his cat Baba.

“Human beings have always gendered domestic animals and cats have always been gendered feminine, whereas dogs have always been considered the masculine animal,” he said, adding, “I think that’s a lot of what’s going on