Judy Eddy/WENN.com
Ever since Taylor Swift posted who she is voting for on her Instagram and encouraged her fans to register to vote on Vote.org, the site has since an increase of voter registrations across the nation.
“We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift’s post,” said Kamari Gutherie, director of communications for Vote.org to BuzzFeed.
In Swift’s Instagram post she encouraged her fans to register to vote but also voiced who she is voting for in Tennessee and why. She wrote that she’ll be supporting the Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper. Swift also wrote a scathing reason why she won’t be voting for Marsha Blackburn. Because of her post, Vote.org saw a spike in Tennessee registration.
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“Vote.org saw [Tennessee] registrations spike specifically since Taylor’s post,” Guthrie said. She told BuzzFeed, the site has registered 5,183 Tennessee voters this month and at least 2,144 in the last 36 hours after Swift’s post. Gutherie said that in September they received 2,811 new Tennessee voters and only 951 in August.
Not only has voter registration spiked on the site, but overall visitors have as well. According to Gutherie, Vote.org had 155,940 unique visitors in the last 24 hours. This is the second most visitors behind National Voter Registration Day.
On Sunday, October 7, Swift broke her political silence for the midterm elections. Swift notoriously keeps her political beliefs quiet, only recently she shared her stance on gun control reform. But her post about gun control reform was nothing compared to her midterm elections post.
Swift wrote, “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.”
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She went on to say that she can only vote for someone who will support all Americans, despite gender, race or sexual identity. Because of this, she will not be voting for Marsha Blackburn and instead be voting for Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper.
“[Blackburn’s] voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me,” wrote Swift. “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.”
Republican politicians and President Trump have since come out and tried to minimize Swift’s political voice by saying her influence won’t matter in the polls, but based on Vote.org’s numbers her voice matters a lot.
