Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris led to a spike in traffic at the voter information website Vote.gov. Less than 24 hours after posting her endorsement on Instagram, the Vote.gov page received more than 330,000 visits.
According to the General Services Administration, Swift’s custom link to Vote.gov drove over 337,000 visits by Wednesday, Sept 11, afternoon. Swift made her endorsement just minutes after the debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, sharing it with her 283 million Instagram followers. Her post, which garnered more than 9.6 million likes, urged followers to register to vote and conduct their own research on candidates.
Vote.gov provides information on voting rights, requirements, and registration but does not directly register voters.
There has been much anticipation around the superstar’s potential involvement in the 2024 election. Months before the endorsement, a Newsweek poll asked whether Swift’s endorsement would impact voters’ choices. Around 18% of voters said they are more likely to support the candidate Swift chooses. While 17% said they are less likely to vote for whoever she endorsed. Another 55% said her endorsement would not sway their political opinions. However, 30% of Gen Z and millennial voters said they would align their vote with the pop icon.
Historically, Swift’s endorsements have leaned Democratic. In 2018, she supported several Democratic candidates in Tennessee, including former Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., and former U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. Bredesen lost his race, but Cooper won. In the 2020 presidential election, she endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket with a post on X.
Swift’s impact on voter registration was significant then too. Her 2020 call to action on Instagram led to 35,000 new registrations, while a similar effort in 2019 resulted in 65,000 new sign-ups in just one day.
While the Newsweek poll suggests many of her followers prefer to keep entertainment and politics separate, other celebrities are applauding Swift — not necessarily for her choice of candidate but for encouraging people to vote. That includes WNBA star Caitlin Clark, who “liked” Swift’s post on Instagram.
When asked about it before her Wednesday game, Clark did not share whom she’s voting for but said the biggest thing she can do with her platform is encourage people to vote. She added that’s “the same thing Taylor did,” encouraging fans to “educate” themselves on the candidates and policies they support.
