Taylor Swift Social Media Post Inspires Over 38,000 New Voter Registrations
As KDKA political editor Jon Delano reports, something Taylor Swift did a few days ago seems to confirm the belief that young people are becoming a more influential part of the American electorate.
When Taylor Swift encouraged her followers on Instagram to register to vote last week and directed them to the non-partisan group, Vote.org, things exploded.
“The hour that she posted, we saw over a 1000% spike. That momentum really continued through the day, and by the end of the day, we had over 38,000 registrations that came through,” according to Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org.
But Hailey says what was particularly exciting was a 72% jump in the number of 18-year-olds registering more than a year ago and a general boost in young people registering overall.
“About 65% of the people using Vote.org are 35 and under, so we are really interacting with the next generation of voters who want to register on their phone, [and] take two minutes to register.”
Both Will Allison, president of College Democrats, and Dylan Mitchell, president of College Republicans at the University of Pittsburgh, say interest in voting has grown, largely because of issues that attract young people to one party over the other.
Despite young voters registering more than ever, both parties are expected to nominate a rematch for two of the oldest candidates to ever run for president: Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
“We’re moving into the future and our leaders are getting older, instead of younger. That doesn’t really make sense,” Mitchell added.
But that won’t keep young people from voting, a trend that only seems to be growing.
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