The Nov. 6 election may be decided by a musician’s post rather than a politician’s campaign.
On Oct. 7, Taylor Swift posted on Instagram that she would be voting for Democrat Phil Bredesen for the U.S. Senate and Democrat Jim Cooper for the U.S. House of Representatives, but she did not draw the line there.
Swift included an explanation for why she is voting for Bredesen over Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn. In addition, she encouraged voters to do their own research on each candidate.
“Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values,” Swift wrote to voters.
While a celebrities’ social media accounts may not be the most conventional platform for a political endorsement, this is not the first time that this has been done in recent years.
For instance, Kanye West was notorious for articulating his support for President Trump on his Twitter account.
And in recent years, West was far more vocal than Swift with his approach.
Since the 2016 presidential election, West has proven his support of the president through wearing Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hat, repeatedly mentioning him in interviews, publicly meeting with him on several occasions and posting photos of them together.
Wearing brand items, verbally endorsing, appearing at public events and photo campaigns are all common ways that celebrities endorse products and brands. Kanye West is effectively selling Trump to his fans.
The influence of both Swift and West has proven immensely effective.
While the state election has yet to take place, the effects of Taylor Swift’s speech are evident in the surge of voter registration.
In an interview with The Washington Post, spokeswoman Kamari Guthrie said that within two days of Swift’s post, over 169,000 new people had registered to vote. Though Taylor Swift is primarily urging people to do research and vote based on it, there is the undeniable possibility that her fans may simply imitate her candidate choices for the sake of solidarity with their favorite celebrity, similar to West’s fans.
At an NRA convention in Dallas, Texas, Trump credited West with a significant increase in his approval rating saying, “Kanye must have some power because as you probably saw, I doubled my African-American poll numbers.”
Given some of Trump’s previous racial remarks about the African-American community, it would take an impressive amount of influence to yield such results.
These celebrity endorsements may generate a renewed interest in voting, but they could also create a new kind of bias. This makes one wonder how many people this year will base their vote on their favorite celebrity rather than their political beliefs.
If you are a Taylor Swift or Kanye West fan, then I urge you to stand up to the bandwagon.
Do not support any candidate unless you believe in their platform, but no matter who you choose, take your own interests to the polls on Nov. 6 to vote.
