Taylor Swift pro-Democrat Instagram post causes spike in voter registration

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The number of people registering to vote in the US has spiked after Taylor Swift spoke out in support of two Democratic candidates in Tennessee.

Swift, who is registered to vote in Tennessee, made a rare political statement on Sunday 7 October, telling her 112 million Instagram followers that she intends on voting for Phil Bredesen for US Senate, and Jim Cooper – who is making a re-election bid for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. The 28-year-old criticised Marsha Blackburn, the Republican nominee, and called on everyone to register to vote.

Kamari Guthrie, director of communications for Vote.org, has since told Buzzfeed News that an unprecedented number of new voters have registered, saying: ”We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift’s post.”

September saw a total of 190,178 new voters register to vote across the entire month, while August was worse, with 56,669 registering. Tennessee saw a particularly large spike in new voters, Guthrie saying that 5,183 people have registered in the state so far this month, at least 2,144 of which came in the last 36 hours. The number is significantly up from the 2,811 new Tennessee voters who registered in September and the 951 in August.

Swift wrote in her initial post: “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.

“I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country,” she continued. “I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.

“I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin colour, gender or who they love. Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.”

Swift went on to point out how Blackburn voted against equal pay for women, and also voted against the Reauthorisation of the Violence Against Women Act, which is intended to help protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape.”

President Donald Trump responded to Swift’s statement by saying he likes her music “25 per cent less”.

“Marsha Blackburn is doing a very good job in Tennessee,” he said, standing outside the White House. ”She’s leading now, substantially, as she should. She’s a tremendous woman, I am sure Taylor Swift does not know anything about her and let’s say that I like Taylor’s music 25 per cent less now.”