While the common perception has long been that celebrity endorsements of political candidates don’t matter, Taylor Swift has successfully encouraged her fans to become civically engaged and register to vote.

Swift appears to have pulled off another voter registration coup when she took to Instagram on Tuesday night following the combative presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The pop megastar let her 283 million followers know that she was endorsing Democrat Harris for president and her running mate, Tim Walz, for vice president. She also encouraged her followers to make sure they registered to vote in the presidential election on November 5.

“I also want to say, especially to those who are first-time voters, remember you have to be registered to vote!” wrote Swift, who is expected to appear at the MTV Video Awards on Wednesday night, where she is nominated for 12 awards, eight of which are for her music video for “Fortnight.”

“I also find it much easier to vote early,” Swift continued. “I’ll be linking in my story where you can register and where you can find early voting dates and info.” She shared a link on Instagram Story, which directed people to Vote.gov, the U.S. government’s official destination for voting information, including how to register to vote or update your registration status in your home state.

According to a spokesperson for the General Services Administration, more than 337,000 visitors came to the Vote.gov website in the following half day, using the URL Swift shared.

The more than 337,000 visitors certainly represent a significant number, though it is not known whether those visits resulted in new registrations. Vote.gov refers voters to their state election websites for state-specific voting information, and voters must register directly with their state.

Still, that attendance shows that the singer-songwriter, with her global following and broad cultural appeal, can drum up enthusiasm for political involvement and specific candidates. When Swift spoke about community engagement ahead of National Voter Registration Day in September 2023, her fans listened, NPR reports.

Ahead of National Voter Registration Day, she took to Instagram to direct her fans to the nonpartisan nonprofit vote.org, which in turn logged more than 35,000 new registrations, NPR reported. Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey said the site saw a record 1,225% jump in registrations, with an average of 13,000 users every 30 minutes.

“I’ve been so lucky to see so many of you at my shows in the US recently,” Swift told her fans at the time, referring to everyone who came to one of her US shows from her blockbuster Eras tour. “Be ready to use them in our elections this year!”

On Tuesday night, minutes after Harris and Trump left the debate stage in Philadelphia, Swift virtually broke the internet by posting her endorsement of Harris.

“I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election,” Swift wrote in a lengthy statement. “I am voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes that I believe need a warrior to defend.”

Swift signed her post “Childless Cat Lady,” a pointed reference to Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance and his infamous comments disparaging women, cat owners, and childless couples. Swift accompanied her message of support with a photo of herself with one of her cats, Benjamin Button, her pet Ragdoll.

On Wednesday morning, Trump pretended not to care that Swift was endorsing his opponent. In a chat with the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” he warned that the “liberal” pop star would “pay a price” in the “marketplace,” suggesting she would lose conservative fans. But no matter how hard Trump tried to appear indifferent, Swift’s message of support for Harris garnered more than 1 million likes in just 13 minutes of being posted.

Swift first spoke out about politics during the 2018 midterms, when the former country star endorsed Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee. Her Instagram post, shared with her then-112 million Instagram followers, is credited with prompting more than 100,000 people to register on Vote.org.

Originally published: September 11, 2024 at 3:46 pm