Is Taylor Swift Too Big to Fail? After years of political silence, the singer went public with a big statement.
By Nina Zipkin
Taylor Swift probably realized that leaving a blank space for her political beliefs wasn't doing much for her reputation (we're not sorry).
Accompanied by a black-and-white polaroid of the singer, Swift took to Instagram this week to endorse a pair of Tennessee Democratic candidates, Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. She also urged her 112 million followers to register to vote in order to participate in the midterm elections.
That post has been liked more than 1.8 million times. It also already translated into some concrete action.
Kamari Guthrie, the director of communications for Vote.org, told Buzzfeed that there was an surge in registrations, 65,000 alone in the 24 hours after Swift's post. As a basis of comparison, Guthrie shared that 190,178 voters registered on the site in September and 56,669 in August.
While Guthrie caveated that there was a slight increase in registrations since deadlines in many states, including Tennessee, are rapidly approaching, she credited Swift in part for the spike.
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The last time Swift weighed in on fulfilling her civic duty, it was Election Day 2016 and she hadn't endorsed a presidential candidate. She posted a photo of her in line at the polls, wearing an off-the-shoulder sweater -- which some thought might be a tenuous nod at best to Hillary Clinton's 1993 inauguration dress -- and the caption "Today is the day. Go out and VOTE."
Swift was more expansive this time around. In the lengthy post, she shared her beliefs, and in particular, her reasons for supporting Bredesen in his campaign against his Republican opponent, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, much as Swift said she would like to back female candidates for higher office.
"In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," Swift wrote. "I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love."