Pop superstar Taylor Swift could have helped sign up enough voters in a single day last September to enable close races in several states, with turnout experts predicting a strong youth vote for the 2024 presidential election.
After an Instagram post from Swift, a record more than 30,000 people registered through Vote.org during National Voter Registration Day, many of whom are teenagers who will be able to vote in this fall’s elections. Among the top states for these new registrations: Texas, California, New York, Illinois and Florida.
Swift’s fan base tends to be younger and more liberal than the country as a whole, and while new voter registrations are unlikely to affect the presidential election, several state House races -United in 2022 were decided by fewer than 1,000 votes, including in Colorado, where Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert was re-elected in 2022 by 546 votes.
Experts say everything indicates that the youth vote will be high again this year, as it was in 2020.
“The younger generation is really starting to connect the dots between what they care about and the turnout numbers,” said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, a nonpartisan organization, which registered 279,400 new voters last year . “When someone casts 30,000 votes at once, it absolutely can have an impact.”
Preparing the surveys: Find out who’s running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter’s Guide.
Youth vote seen as key to 2024 elections
Youth voter turnout has long been a concern for experts who note that millions of potential voters simply don’t care: In the 2020 election, about 48% of eligible voters ages 18 to 29 voted. voted, against 73% of people aged 18 to 29. 65-74. In 2016, only about 40% of young people voted. Hailey said about 80 percent of people registered on Vote.org actually voted in the upcoming election.
There are about 170 million registered voters in the United States, and the state where Swift had the biggest impact in a single day is Texas, with about 2,700 new registrations and 4,562 over the 10 days following. Overall, Texas has about 17.7 million registered voters.
Vote.org partners with influencers, including Swift, to reach potential voters, especially young people. It also partners with micro-influencers from historically black colleges and universities, other musicians and performers, echoing the work Rock the Vote did with MTV beginning in the 1990s.
Election experts at Tufts University’s nonpartisan Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement have identified several states where youth voter participation could make a significant difference this year. Among them: Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona for the presidential race; Arizona, Ohio and Montana for Senate races; and home races in Michigan, Oregon and New York.
“We went through a period of historically high and record youth participation, and that certainly made a difference and shaped the election results,” said CIRCLE spokesperson Alberto Medina. “There is growing recognition that the youth vote is both valuable and powerful.”
Swift only got political occasionally
In her post last fall, Swift encouraged her 278 million followers worldwide to participate in the upcoming election, but did not endorse any candidate or position.
“I was so lucky to see so many of you at my shows in the US recently,” she posted on her Instagram account. “I heard you raise your voice and I know how powerful your voice is. Make sure you’re ready to use it in our elections this year!
Swift has repeatedly urged her fans to vote, although she generally remains neutral toward the candidates.
But in 2018, she supported two Democratic congressional candidates in Tennessee, citing her opposition to Marsha Blackburn. Blackburn won with 54.7% of the vote for a seat in the U.S. Senate, defeating Swift’s preferred candidate, Phil Bredesen. The other Swift-backed candidate, Jim Cooper, won his House race.
In a documentary that captured Swift’s conversations with her family and staff while reviewing those 2018 mentions, she worried out loud that she should have condemned more forcefully. Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. In 2020, Swift told Trump “we will eliminate you.”
Swift superfan Tess Bohne, 32, credits the performer’s authenticity and vulnerability as the key to both connecting with her audience and persuading them to listen when she speaks — even when she’s occasionally involved in politics.
“Taylor puts herself in this glass bowl, where she exposes her vulnerabilities, the ugly parts, the beautiful parts,” said Bohne, a Salt Lake City resident who livestreams Swift’s concerts on her TikTok to more than 300 people. 000 subscribers. “Because of her vulnerabilities, she gives us this level of trust. She trusts us with her vulnerabilities and we trust her so that when she tells us ‘go vote,’ we think it’s important to her, so It’s important to us.”
Bohne said she admired how Swift raised the group formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, whose members saw their pipeline of country music careers in 2003 after criticizing President George W. Bush over the impending invasion of Iraq. Swift invited members of the group now known as The Chicks to perform with her live and featured them in a moving 2019 song about her mother’s battle with cancer.
“It’s that level of respect that allows us fans to see the love and care and trust it even more,” Bohne said. “It’s like having that friend that you respect: you don’t take everything as absolute, but there is a certain level of trust.”
To get up to date:When is the next presidential election? Everything you need to know about Election Day 2024.
Taylor Swift, Pentagon agent?
Swift’s positions and influence were also noted by conservative groups, as well as FOX News anchor Jesse Watters on January 9. speculated out loud that Pentagon officials were using Swift as a “psychological operation,” or psychological operation, intended to influence the public to vote a certain way.
Watters’ guest, former FBI Special Agent Stuart Kaplan, noted that Swift has outsized influence: “She can potentially single-handedly swing voters because of the number of followers she can potentially influence. “
European officials have also noticed Swift’s influence. On February 10, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas urged Swift to encourage young people to vote in the upcoming European elections.
