Taylor Swift boosts voter registration after she gets political on Instagram

After Taylor Swift ended her silence on political matters with an Instagram post including a plea to register to vote, voter registration soared.

How influential is Taylor Swift? In the 24-hour period following Swift’s first political post on Instagram, voter registration has soared.

Swift’s lengthy Instagram post discussed her views on the upcoming November elections. The 28-year-old singer also urged her fans to register to vote.

Based on Vote.org’s statistics, registrations to vote after Swift’s Instagram post soared throughout the nation as well as in Tennessee, which is Swift’s home state. In the past 24 hours alone, Vote.org reported 51,308 new voter registrations.

The website’s overall traffic also soared in the same period of time, attracting 155,940 unique visitors. In Tennessee, the total 2,811 registrations in September skyrocketed to 3,582 this month thus far, with 2,144 of that total in the past 36 hours.

Karen North, a professor of digital social media at USC Annenberg, praised her decision to share her political views on Instagram on Sunday.

“She laid it out there in a lot of words with a lot of passion, saying vote based on issues,” pointed out North to ABC news. “Take a look at the candidates and make sure that you agree with candidates as opposed to look at the demographics of the candidates.”

When it comes to focusing on demographics versus political platform, Swift shared that she had previously voted for female candidates. But based on Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s voting record, Swift planned to vote for the Democratic candidates.

“Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me,” said Swift of Blackburn.

For example, the singer pointed out that Blackburn:

• Voted against equal pay for women and the Reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act
• Believes businesses have the right to refuse service to gay couples and that they should not have a right to marry.

The Republican rep’s values “are not MY Tennessee values,” summed up Swift. “I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives.”

Swift’s one critic through this breakthrough was President Donald Trump, who criticized her efforts on Monday.

“I’m sure Taylor Swift doesn’t know anything about [Blackburn],” Trump said. “Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now.”

Regardless of what the president had to say about the matter, it’s clear Swift has the power to influence her fans in two ways, pointed out Professor North. First, she can influence her social media followers to register to vote and head to the polls. Second, Swift may help undecided voters to agree with her views.

What do you think of Taylor Swift’s influence on voter registration? Do you think she could influence the mid-term elections? Share your views below.