For a moment there, it seemed that Hillary Clinton had lost the Kim Kardashian vote.
The reality television star and mogul backed Clinton as early as August 2015 and, in typical Kardashian fashion, had declared her allegiance via selfie.
But last week, reports emerged that Kardashian was thinking of voting for Donald Trump after Caitlyn Jenner — a Republican who spoke during the party’s convention this summer — encouraged her to reconsider her vote.
It all stemmed from a Kardashian quote attributed to an upcoming Wonderland magazine cover story. The quote doesn’t appear in the online version of the magazine, but BuzzFeed reports that it did appear in an advance version sent to certain outlets, including to BuzzFeed UK.
The reported quote read: “At first I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m so Hillary,’ but I had a long political call with Caitlyn last night about why she’s voting Trump. I’m on the fence.”
Headlines declared “Kim Kardashian Is Suddenly (And Disappointingly) Considering Voting For Donald Trump;” “Caitlyn Jenner Convinces Kim Kardashian to Consider Trump” and “Hillary Clinton Supporter Kim Kardashian Might Vote for Donald Trump.”
And, according to Kardashian, her phone blew up with messages from family, friends and both candidates’ camps. So she took to her website on Saturday night and explained why she was “‘on the fence’ about my vote,” she wrote.
“There was a point when I wasn’t 100 per cent sure I was even going to vote in this election; I didn’t want to vote blindly,” she wrote. “But I also thought about how not voting would mean that I wasn’t making my voice heard, so I decided to talk to my closest friends and family who I love and trust, to have an open conversation about politics.”
She spoke with Jenner, who encouraged her “to do my research before making my decision and then vote for the candidate whose policies aligned with the things that matter most to me.” For Kardashian, that included “gun control and protecting women’s rights to safe and legal abortion.”
Kardashian continued: “I found that without a doubt, I stand with Hillary. I’m with her. I believe Hillary will best represent our country and is the most qualified for the job. This year, I’m not just voting for myself, but also for my children, and I took that into careful consideration when I made my decision.”
She also wrote that she believed both Clinton and Trump “have the intention of making the country a safer and stronger place for every American.”
Jenner, for her part, has made varying statements about Trump and Clinton. In a March episode of her show, I Am Cait, she said she wasn’t a Trump fan because of “his macho attitude” but would “never ever ever vote for Hillary. We’re done, if Hillary becomes president, the country is over.”
But in August, Jenner told HBO’s Bill Simmons, “I honestly have not outwardly supported anybody.”
