Taylor Swift posts message about voting on Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday kicks off on March 5, and Taylor Swift is using her platform to remind people to get out and vote. The pop star, who has 282 million followers on Instagram, posted a message on her stories reminding people that today is the presidential primary for more than a dozen states.
"I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power," she wrote. "If you haven't already, make a plan to vote today." She included a link to vote.org, where people can look up their polling stations and hours.
Fifteen states are holding GOP primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia are holding primaries and Alaska and Utah, are holding caucuses. Eleven of these states are holding GOP primaries that are open to more than just registered Republicans.
Former President Donald Trump is leading the leading contender against former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Republican nomination race.
All of these states execpt Alaska will also hold Democratic primaries. American Samoa, a U.S. territory, will hold Democratic caucuses.
President Joe Biden is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.
While Iowa held its Democratic caucuses in January by mail, the results will be released on Tuesday with the rest of the Super Tuesday states.
While Swift stayed largely out of politics in the beginning of her career, she began using her voice to speak out on political issues like LGBTQ rights. In 2018, Swift announced on social media she was voting for Tennessee's Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen.
In a lengthy post, Swift – who grew up in Tennessee – criticized the Republican candidate, then-U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who opposed certain LGBTQ rights. Blackburn also voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013.
Again in 2019, Swift criticized the Trump administration for not passing a bill that would protect LGBTQ rights.
She highlighted the Equality Act bill at the end of the music video for her hit song "You Need to Calm Down," which won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. During her acceptance speech for the award, Swift spoke about the proposal, which would add legal protections for LGBTQ people from discrimination in their places of work, homes, schools, and other public accommodations.
"In this video, several points were made, so you voting for the video means that you want a world where we're all treated equally under the law, regardless of who we love, regardless of how we identify," Swift said.
In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, she wrote on social media about racial injustice, urging her followers to vote.
"Racial injustice has been ingrained deeply into local and state governments, and changes MUST be made there," Swift wrote. "In order for policies to change, we need to elect people who will fight against police brutality and racism of any kind."
And in September 2023, after Swift urged people to vote on social media, Vote.org averaged 13,000 users every half hour, according to Nick Morrow, the website's communications director.
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Caitlin O'Kane is a New York City journalist who works on the CBS News social media team as a senior manager of content and production. She writes about a variety of topics and produces "The Uplift," CBS News' streaming show that focuses on good news.