In a post on Instagram, the pop superstar encouraged her 282 million followers to vote in the primaries on Tuesday, though she did not endorse a specific candidate.
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“I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power,” Taylor Swift wrote on Instagram. “If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”
Call it Super Tuesday (Taylor’s Version).
After months of anticipation, Taylor Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election on Tuesday morning, encouraging her 282 million followers on Instagram to make a plan to vote in the presidential primaries.
The message was brief and nonpartisan, and did not include any endorsements. It was directed at voters in the more than a dozen states and territories — including Tennessee, where she owns at least one home — that are holding primaries on Tuesday.
“I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power,” she wrote. “If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today.”
The message has the potential to provoke outrage on Fox News and among the fringes of the Make America Great Again contingent, which in recent months have promoted theories that Ms. Swift is part of an elaborate plot to spread Democratic propaganda — or rig the Super Bowl, or force people to be vaccinated against Covid-19, or do something else that is not entirely clear.
A person familiar with Ms. Swift’s plans said she had already voted, by mail, ahead of Tuesday’s contests, and that she is registered to vote in Tennessee.
Ms. Swift, known for hiding cryptic “Easter eggs” in her liner notes, lyrics and music videos, includes one mystery in her post. She refers to Tennessee “and 16 other states and territories” holding primaries on Tuesday. Technically speaking, 15 states (and one territory) are holding primaries on Tuesday — but one could, in theory, count Iowa, which is holding a Democratic caucus. (Vote.org also counts Iowa as a voting state on Tuesday.)
Ms. Swift, 34, has not endorsed a candidate in the 2024 election. In 2020, she endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr., and she is high on his aides’ wish list for another endorsement this year.
For much of her career, Ms. Swift avoided politics or political statements. But in 2018, she endorsed two Tennessee Democrats: former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who was running for the Senate against Marsha Blackburn, who was then a U.S. representative; and Jim Cooper, another House member who has since retired. At the time, she also began to speak out in support of L.G.B.T.Q. rights.
Last September, on National Voter Registration Day, Ms. Swift took to Instagram to encourage her followers to register to vote, linking to Vote.org, the same nonprofit organization that she linked to on Tuesday. That earlier post, which came as her “Eras” concert tour was lifting her to untold heights of superstardom, led to a surge of 35,000 registrations, many of them from young voters, the group reported.
Rebecca Davis O’Brien covers campaign finance and money in U.S. elections. She previously covered federal law enforcement, courts and criminal justice. More about Rebecca Davis O’Brien
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Source: nytimes.com
