Travel writer and television host Rick Steves endorsed Vice President Harris in the 2024 general election in a video released Thursday night, arguing the world doesn’t need the “chaos” of former President Trump returning to the White House.
“The world needs not the chaos of Trump but the stability of Kamala Harris,” Steves said in a video that was filmed in France and shared on social platform X. “It needs American leadership within the family of nations as we effectively confront the challenges of the future. That’s why I’m voting blue, and I hope you will too.”
Steves, a prominent marijuana legalization proponent who has previously backed Democrats against Trump, elaborated further on his choice in a message posted along with the video.
“It’s far more than Republican versus Democrat,” he wrote. “In the future, big challenges like pandemics, refugees, and climate change will be blind to borders. They’ll be everyone’s problem and only solved by working together as a family of nations.”
The TV personality, who hosts “Rick Steves’ Europe,” added that Americans should make their own minds on whom they select at the ballot box — encouraging them to register to vote at vote.gov.
“Of course, how you vote is your choice,” Steves wrote. “But if you believe, as I do, in the importance of nations working together constructively, the stakes are really high…and the best candidate is clear.”
Steves endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election and now-President Biden in 2020.
Harris’s campaign has accumulated support from Hollywood celebrities and pop-culture icons. Pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Harris shortly after the ABC News debate between the Democratic nominee and Trump wrapped up Tuesday night.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote on her Instagram account, which has more than 280 million followers.
More than 330,000 visitors flocked to vote.gov within 24 hours by way of Swift’s postdebate endorsement, according to the General Services Administration.
The Hill has reached out to both Harris’s and Trump’s campaigns for comment.