Voter registrations among young Americans shot up in the wake of pop megastar Taylor Swift’s Instagram post urging her 112 million followers to get out the vote.
Swift’s Sunday night missive, in which she also endorsed two Tennessee Democrats, catapulted the generally apolitical singer into the fray ahead of the November midterms. New data from Vote.org show Swift’s voice is already making an impact.
The nonprofit group reported that nearly 65,000 Americans between 18 and 29 years old registered to vote in the roughly 24-hour period since the singer-songwriter’s social media rallying cry.
That surge in young registrations far exceeded the combined total of every other age group in the same time period, in which about 40,000 Americans ages 30 and up registered.
Swift targeted young Americans in her lengthy message. “So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count,” she wrote, noting that Tennessee’s voting registration deadline was fast approaching on Tuesday.
Vote.org attributed the spike in numbers directly to Swift’s Instagram message.
“Taylor’s post has helped bring out young voters,” the nonprofit said in a statement, adding, “We’re especially happy to see that because we know voting is habit-forming.”
In Swift’s home state of Tennessee, registrations in just the first eight days of October have already blown past every other month in 2018. More than 5,000 Tennesseans registered in October by 4 p.m. ET on Monday, well above the next-highest month of September, which saw 2,811 registrations.
Swift had long declined to endorse or denounce specific political candidates — a position that irked some political activists. But in her Instagram message Sunday, Swift wrote that “I feel differently about that now.”
The post urged Tennessee voters to vote for Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate over his GOP challenger, Marsha Blackburn, in the Nov. 6 elections. Both candidates are angling to fill the seat of Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who is not running for re-election. Swift also endorsed incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper.
Swift’s post supporting Democrats contrasts with the views of hip hop veteran Kanye West, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-styled iconoclast who is set to meet with the president later this week. West donned a red “Make America Great Again” hat and railed against the cast of “Saturday Night Live” during his recent guest appearance on the weekly sketch show.
West infamously rushed the stage of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards during Swift’s acceptance speech for the Best Female Video award, grabbing the microphone and yelling, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
