Pop star Taylor Swift endorsed two Democrats this week in a surprise Instagram post that upset many Trump supporters who assumed she was a secretly a Republican. Swift focused her post on the Senate race in Tennessee, the state in which she is registered to vote.
Swift stated that while she had previously voted for women in office, she felt unable to support the Republican Senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn.
“Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me,” Swift said.
The pop star said that she would instead be voting for the Democratic candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives.
Swift is a powerful and influential figure, so naturally her Instagram post had a real impact. The number of voter registrations has shot through the roof, according to Vote.org.
“We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift’s post,” Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for Vote.org, told Buzzfeed.
Of the 5,183 voter registrations in Tennessee this month, at least 2,144 occurred after Swift posted her statement to Instagram.
Swift also affirmed her commitment to the fight for LGBTQ rights. She described the “systemic racism” towards people of color in the US as “terrifying, sickening and prevalent.”
She further encouraged her fans to educate themselves on their local candidates and “vote based on who most closely represents your values.”
But as bold as Swift was, of course, President Donald Trump criticized the pop star. “Marsha Blackburn is doing a very good job in Tennessee. She’s leading now substantially, which she should,” President Trump said. “She’s a tremendous woman. I’m sure Taylor Swift doesn’t know anything about her. Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now, OK?”
By: Maytinee Kramer
