2020 contender Eric Swalwell claims he's a 'country music Democrat.' Here's why that's not a thing.

2020 Democrats' walk-on music has it pretty clear that there's no one genre that defines the party.

Yet it seems Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) didn't quite get the message. In a NowThis video posted Tuesday, the presidential longshot branded himself as a "country music Democrat," and said that he's "not apologizing for that," despite literally no one asking him to apologize.

Swalwell's apparently controversial music take came up when NowThis asked for his go-to karaoke song. "Country Roads," Swalwell answered, which isn't even the full name of the John Denver hit that's as much of a mainstream favorite as it is a country hit. Swalwell also told NowThis his "hottest pop culture take" is that he loves Taylor Swift — an actually very lukewarm take shared by millions of other people around the world.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It seems like Swalwell is using "country music Democrat" to drill home the fact that he's from a Republican family. But country music isn't just Toby Keith, and even old-school country stars and staples have a history of leaning liberal. And Swift, as Swalwell should know, has embraced the labels of "country" and "Democrat" without apology in the past few months.

If Swalwell really wanted to make "country music Democrat" a thing, he'd swap out his walk-on song — the theme from Beverly Hills, 90210 — for something a little more rural. Might we suggest Change from Swift's Fearless album?