Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris directed quite a few people to vote.gov in the hours following Tuesday evening.
The artist dropped her endorsement on Instagram shortly after Harris and Donald Trump’s presidential debate on ABC. At the bottom of her message, she provided a link to vote.gov to make sure her followers were registered — and it drove 338,ooo people and counting to the site.
“As of 2:00 p.m. ET there have been 337,826 visitors to the http://vote.gov website via Swift’s link,” a spokesperson for the U.S. General Services Administration told NPR’s Elena Moore on Wednesday.
There is not currently data on how many of those views translated to completed voter registration.
Who Swift planned to endorse for president this year was hotly speculated over the last few weeks despite her support of President Joe Biden in 2020. She broke down her reasoning for supporting Harris and running mate Tim Walz in her lengthy post.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” she wrote. “I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate Tim Walz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”
Swift continued, “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.”
She signed her post “Childless Cat Lady.”
Due to Swift’s enormous popularity, the endorsement was seen as a major boon for Harris. Trump, on the other hand, had his own words for the artist following her support of his opponent.
“You couldn’t possibly endorse Biden, you look at Biden, you couldn’t possibly endorse him,” Trump said. “But she’s a very liberal person, she seems to always endorse a Democrat. And she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”
