Taylor Swift's political statement has had a major influence on voting registration.
On Sunday evening, the 28-year-old Grammy winner took to Instagram to share her thoughts on the current political climate ahead of the midterm elections, encouraging her followers to register to vote. "I'm writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I'll be voting in the state of Tennessee," Swift began her social media message. "In the past I've been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now."
"I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country," she continued. "I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent."
"I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love," Swift went on to tell her followers. "Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values."
"I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives," she declared. "Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway."
Swift concluded her post by writing, "So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting!"
In the 24 hours following Swift's post, there were 65,000 registrations, according to Vote.org's director of communications, Kamari Guthrie.
"We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift's post," Guthrie told BuzzFeed. "Vote.org saw [Tennessee] registrations spike specifically since Taylor's post."
And Vote.org has received 155,940 unique visitors in the 24 hours following Swift's statement, which has Guthrie saying, "Thank God for Taylor Swift."
An official statement from Vote.org, released on Tuesday, reads, "Since Taylor Swift's well publicized Instagram post on Sunday night, where she urged her 112M fans to register and vote, Vote.org has found a massive spike of voters registering nationwide. While there are several factors contributing this, a large majority of new registrations since Taylor's post on Sunday have been from people between 18-29 years old -- about 102,000 out of the 240,000 total new registrations in less than 48 hours."
When asked about Swift's statement on Monday, President Donald Trump seemingly hadn't seen her post, asking reporters, "What'd she say?"
After being informed that Swift endorsed Democrat Bredesen over Republican Blackburn, Trump said Blackburn is doing a "very good job" in Tennessee and that he's "sure" Swift "doesn't know anything about her."
He then added, "And let's say that I like Taylor's music about 25% less now."
The superstar singer will likely shake off the president's comment as she takes the stage at the 2018 American Music Awards tonight, where she'll open the show with a performance of "I Did Something Bad."