Singer Maren Morris is pressing ahead in her career despite what she called in a recent TikTok video a “very politicized” industry during her 10-year career. For Morris, she found herself on the wrong side of the political spectrum. Unlike most spaces in entertainment, the country music industry, where Morris started out with her hit “My Church,” is much friendlier to conservative views. So, when Morris began voicing her views against Donald Trump, she faced backlash.

“No one is very friendly,” she said of the current industry atmosphere. “Some people are cool, but like, it’s been very dicey at these award shows and s—. And I don’t really go to them anymore, but it’s very heated.” Sharing her political views, however, has been a necessity according to Morris. “You cannot be a full songwriter and, you know, reflect reality and life through song without being political,” she said. “I’m sorry, it just — it is what it is. That’s John Prine, babe.”

Her views brought her head-to-head with country star Jason Aldean and his wife Brittany Aldean. Morris criticized a post Brittany Aldean made against gender transition. In a post on Instagram, Aldean said she would “really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase.” The post was considered transphobic by liberals, with Morris snapping back in a comment, “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”

She later went on to criticize Jason Aldean’s “Try that in a Small Town,” which liberals interpreted as a racist dog whistle to conservatives. Conservatives rallied around the song after it was criticized and Aldean has voiced his support for President Trump in the past. In a 2023 interview, Morris claimed the song was only popular because conservatives wanted to “own the libs.” “People are streaming these songs out of spite. It’s not out of true joy or love of the music,” she claimed. The push back became so strong that in 2023, Morris announced that she was leaving country music, accusing it of bias. “After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic,” she stated. “All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music.”

In her TikTok, Morris said she still loves country music and admitted she has lost a lot of fans. “I’ve lost a lot of fans over the years because of my viewpoints and I think that’s fair. If you don’t agree with me, and you can’t enjoy my music because of my viewpoints, you are absolutely allowed to do that,” she said. Not back down, however, has cost her. “I do feel like I’ve sacrificed a lot of my mental health, my financial standing, my family just because I’m so deeply concerned and uncomfortable with the weird status quo of country music.”