Taylor Swift Endorsement Drives Huge Surge in Voter Registration Interest

‘Please register to vote for something else that’s very important: our presidential election,’ the pop star said during the MTV Video Music Awards.

Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Taylor Swift, center, and Post Malone, third from back left, accept the video of the year award for 'Fortnight' during the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

The Taylor Swift Effect has entered the political arena, with nearly a half-million people seeking to complete their voter registrations after the popular singer urged her fans to vote in the coming presidential election in a post on social media.

On Tuesday, Ms. Swift posted an endorsement of the Democratic nominee, Vice President Harris, on her Instagram account and provided a link to vote.gov. This site offers links to registration site portals for each state. Her fan base responded in droves in the hours after the post.

“There were a total of 405,999 visitors referred to vote.gov from the custom URL created and shared by Ms. Swift during the 24 hours the post was live,” a spokeswoman from the U.S. General Services Administration said in a statement provided to the New York Sun.

According to GSA officials, Ms. Swift’s social media post drove over half of the total 726,523 visitors to their website between September 10 and 11.

On Wednesday night, Ms. Swift continued her voter drive during the MTV Video Music Awards as she accepted her Video of the Year award. She eschewed the normal thank you given during awards speeches in favor of a get-out-the-vote plea.

“This is a fan-voted award, and you voted for this, and I appreciate it so much. And if you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that’s very important: our presidential election,” she said during the ceremony after accepting the top award for her Video with artist Post Malone for the song “Fortnight.”

The award-winning artist has thrown her hat in the political ring before. Last September, her social media post on National Voter Registration Day drove 35,000 new registrations.


The New York Sun

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