Pop star Taylor Swift rocks the vote and registrations spike following Instagram post denouncing Republican senator
Among the 169,000 new voter registrations on Vote.org since Sunday, more than half were by those ages 18 to 29
Music megastar Taylor Swift broke her long silence on politics and encouraged her more than 112 million followers on the platform to register to vote in a surprise Instagram post on Sunday that slammed a Tennessee Republican running for Senate.
It seems as though some of them rushed to do just that, according to Vote.org, a non-partisan group that seeks to increase voter turnout. As of noon Tuesday, less than 48 hours after Swift’s post, more than 169,000 new people had registered on the site to vote, said spokeswoman Kamari Guthrie on Tuesday.
That put the number of new voters registered on the site in October, to date, at 240,329. By comparison, the group said 56,669 new voters registered in August and 190,178 registered in September. In October 2016, there were 405,149 new registrations on Vote.org for the whole month.
In her post, Swift vowed to vote for two Democratic candidates: former governor Phil Bredesen for the US Senate and Representative Jim Cooper for re-election.
She singled out for criticism Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican running for the US Senate seat vacated by Bob Corker, because “She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry.
“These are not MY Tennessee values.”
She also acknowledged her past reluctance to address political issues but said that had changed in the past two years.
Guthrie said it is difficult to credit Swift directly for the spike in registrations because there is usually some kind of a surge just before voter registration deadlines, in election years, since “people wait until the deadline to register”. Tuesday is the deadline to register to vote in Tennessee in time for the November 6 election.
However, among the 169,000 new registrations since Sunday, more than half were by those ages 18 to 29.
“One thing is clear, we’re seeing a massive surge in the 18-24 and 25-29 voters, which is her fan demographic. The 18-24 number almost doubled overnight,” Guthrie said. “Taylor Swift’s visibility on this issue is driving a lot of coverage of voter registration and it’s reaching many of her fans who would not otherwise be following news like this.”
The 18-24 number [of registered voters] almost doubled overnight
Vote.org also saw a definite jump in traffic in the wake of her Instagram post. The site typically has 14,078 average daily visitors, Guthrie said. In the 24 hours after Swift’s post – which specifically mentioned Vote.org – the site had 155,940 visitors.
In Tennessee, where Swift is registered to vote, Vote.org tracked 2,144 new voter registrations in the 36 hours since the singer’s post, bringing October’s to-date total to 7,554 – a sharp increase from 2,811 registrations in September and 951 in August.
“Overall, we were thrilled, especially to see millennials get involved,” Guthrie said. “Taylor’s post has helped bring out young voters.
“We’re especially happy to see that because we know voting is habit-forming; statistically, a young person who votes in 2018 is 55 per cent more likely to vote again in 2020.”
