Gooooood morning, America! Happy Election Day! From the New York City mayoral race to California’s Proposition 50, it’s important to go out and vote at your polling locations today, and at every opportunity. Let’s be real with each other…shit sucks. It really does. If you’ve been keeping up with the news, Israel violated their ceasefire agreement, the Trump admin is doing nothing to remedy SNAP (and blaming Democrats on the process), ICE is ripping apart families, and that’s just a handful of headlines that might keep you up at night.
However, a better future is possible, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. Getting out to vote, joining protests, helping mutual aid efforts, donating to local orgs, and the like are vital for getting through these dark times. And if you need a little help, your favorite alternative musicians are using their platforms to speak out and rally their listeners. These 9 political alternative artists are just a handful of myriad acts who are fighting for equality, safety, peace, affordability, and more.
Daisy Grenade
Daisy Grenade, NYC’s most iconic duo, formally endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor ahead of early voting. The artists plan to vote in person on Election Day, November 4, can you can find your polling place right here.
Gully Boys
Gully Boys‘ own Nadirah McGill offered their support to Minneapolis mayoral candidate and Minnesota Senator Omar Fateh, who is running a campaign on raising the minimum wage, investing in housing projects, protecting citizens from ICE raids, and more. You can find your polling location here.
Lucy Dacus
Zohran Mamdani has made several appearances on concert stages, including with Lucy Dacus at her All Things Go set. The crowd at Forest Hills Stadium, aka Mamdani’s favorite concert spot, offered the mayoral candidate a warm welcome.
He shared, sitting alongside Dacus, “This is what our city should feel like. It should be a city where trans New Yorkers are cherished, a city where our queer neighbors are celebrated, and a city where each and every New Yorker can be the fullest version of themselves. And it has to be a city that all of us can afford…and that city is within reach.”
Dacus has always shared progressive politics and worked with candidates in the past, including opening up a Bernie Sanders rally in Richmond back in 2020.
Clairo
Representative Maxwell Frost and Senator Bernie Sanders took to the Coachella stage in 2025 to introduce Clairo and chat a little about how young people can shape the future. “This country faces some very difficult challenges, and the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation,” Sanders said. He then celebrated Clairo for fighting for women’s rights, speaking up for Palestine, and more.
Kneecap
Speaking of Coachella, Irish act Kneecap spoke truth to power during their set. “If you’re not calling it a genocide, what the fuck are you calling it?” the band said ahead of a Free Palestine chant with a “Fuck Israel/Free Palestine” backdrop. “And don’t get it twisted,” they added. “The American government could stop this tomorrow morning!”
Kneecap have fearlessly continued their support of Palestine at each and every tour and festival stop, calling for the end of the genocide whenever they have a platform.
Hayley Williams
Hayley Williams has always stood on business, and has been acting on her progressive values for years, especially in 2025. This year, when the Trump administration’s plan to cut federal funding for public media went into effect, Williams gave the exclusive release of her song “Mirtazapine” to Nashville’s WNXP. She wrote on the burned, “WNXP Thanks for keeping me company. Long live public radio.”
Additionally, and more recently, she played her song “True Believer” on The Tonight Show with an all-Black orchestra—a song that tackles Christian nationalism and racism that persists in the States, specifically the South. The haunting track perfectly tackles the phrase, “There’s no hate like Christian love.”
Tom Morello
This is a real “fork found in kitchen” moment, of course, but yes, Rage Against The Machine‘s Tom Morello has been speaking out, protesting, and energizing against many injustices this year, alone. In response to ICE raids and Los Angeles occupation, he headlined a show to fundraise for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA).
Plus, in August, he made a “Fuck ICE” playlist to serve as the soundtrack for sticking up for what’s right and protecting neighbors. All in all, we could write entire books about the large and small acts Morello has performed in 2025. If you want to stay up-to-date on the news you need to know, Morello is also a great follow on Twitter.
Enter Shikari
Enter Shikari have always and will always be a political band, tackling themes of climate change, oligarchy, patriarchy, LGBTQIA+ rights, and more in their songs, words, and actions. And at this year’s Long Beach Warped Tour stop, frontman Rou Reynolds took a moment to share in front of thousands, “Amongst all this mass displacement, mass starvation, and mass murder, which the UK and the U.S. is complicit in…not just complicit, in fact, it enables. We would like to reassert our solidarity with all our Jewish friends, our Muslim friends, our Christian friends, our atheist friends, people of good conscience all over the world who say enough of this sickness. Enough of this inhumanity. Enough of this insanity. Free Palestine.”
The Wonder Years
While playing Washington DC Warped Tour, Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years pulled no punches when he said, “I’m going to say three things: I’m going to say protect trans youth. I’m gonna say fuck ICE. And with my whole fucking chest, I’m going to say free Palestine.”
In fact, many bands echoed the same sentiments during this DC Warped Tour weekend, which just so happened to coincide with the Army’s 250th birthday military parade.
