In 1978, Dolly Parton had been a major country artist for a decade. At the time, I was a music journalist writing about both country music and rock music. Her new manager, Sandy Gallin, came to me and said they were trying to cross her over into pop and asked for my help. I arranged to do a cover story about her in After Dark, a glossy entertainment magazine with a big LGBTQ audience. She had just released her first big pop-oriented album, Here You Come Again. She flew out to San Francisco and I spent two days getting to know here and taping a series of interviews with her. I was smitten with her authenticity and intelligence. We totally bonded.
I know a lot less about Taylor Swift, although I know her parents named her for James Taylor and that she released her eponymous debut album in 2006, when she was 15, in the country genre. She followed that with country-pop albums that crossed over into the mainstream. A decade later she was more an international pop superstar than a country artist. She’s also a billionaire and an open critic of Señor Trumpanzee. When she released her 7th album, Lover, in 2019, Guardian reporter Laura Snipes wrote “she has swapped personal disclosure for activism. Last August, Swift broke her political silence to endorse Democratic Tennessee candidate Phil Bredesen in the November 2018 senate race. Vote.org reported an unprecedented spike in voting registration after Swift’s Instagram post, while Donald Trump responded that he liked her music ‘about 25% less now.’” Meanwhile, her recent single You Need To Calm Down admonished homophobes and name-checked US LGBTQ rights organization Glaad (which then saw increased donations). Swift filled her video with cameos from queer stars such as Ellen DeGeneres and Queen singer Adam Lambert, and capped it with a call to sign her petition in support of the Equality Act, which if passed would prohibit gender- and sexuality-based discrimination in the US. A video of Polish LGBTQ fans miming the track in defiance of their government’s homophobic agenda went viral.”
Today she’s known as a strong feminist who is both pro-Choice and aggressively for the Time’s Up agenda, as well as being outspokenly pro-LGBTQ, pro-BLM, anti-racism and a backer of gun control laws. She called for the removal Confederate monuments in Tennessee and urged her fans to register to vote; 65,000 did exactly that… within 24 hours!
Yesterday, Republican Party propagandist Jesse Watters focused on Taylor Swift: “I wonder who got to her from the White House or from wherever. Who makes that initial handshake?” Watters and his guest seem to be worrying that Swift ia a Biden plant who will swing the election. Watch this minute and a half unhinged segment (by clicking the image):
For many years Swift kept her political opinions to herself, although "Only the Young" is overtly political and she allowed the Democrats to use it for free in their election campaigns and Vanity Fair noted that she wrote “As a country musician, I was always told it’s better to stay out of [politics]. The Trump presidency forced me to lean in and educate myself. I found myself talking about government and the presidency and policy with my boyfriend, who supported me in speaking out. I started talking to my family and friends about politics and learning as much as I could about where I stand. I’m proud to have moved past fear and self-doubt, and to endorse and support leadership that moves us beyond this divisive, heartbreaking moment in time.”
“Only the Young” was written in 2018, shortly after Swift had broken her long silence about politics. She had endorsed Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen in the Tennessee Senate race against Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. But though Swift was credited with inspiring a surge in voter registration, Blackburn emerged as the winner. Miss Americana captures Swift’s devastation vividly. Upon hearing the news, she expresses her disgust with Blackburn by describing her as “Trump in a wig.”
“Almost the entire process of creating that song, I was fighting back tears because I was so sad about the results of the midterm elections in my state and the losses faced by superb Democratic candidates in states like Georgia and Texas,” she writes, presumably referring to Stacey Abrams’s gubernatorial defeat in Georgia and Beto O’Rourke’s loss in the Texas Senate race. “I didn’t want the defeat and hopelessness I felt for our country’s future to get the best of me. I didn’t want to weep. I wanted to have hope. Writing ‘Only the Young’ helped me push through that moment in my life and gave me the hope to keep fighting for what I believe is right.”
…Nine turbulent months after Swift released “Only the Young,” she gave gratis license for it to be used in a voter-turnout video from California congressman Eric Swalwell. The video blended a year’s worth of headlines, including the global pandemic and mass protests for social justice, with her song and words from a speech by Kamala Harris.
In 2018, she endorsed two very conservative Democrats in Tennessee, former governor Phil Bredesen who was running for the Senate seat Marsha Blackburn was in and long-time incumbent Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper. Bredesen lost and Cooper won. Had Swift not weighed in, Bredesen would have lost and Cooper would have won. But she does seem to have made a difference. Cooper first: In 2014 Cooper beat Republican Bob Ries 95,635 (62.3%) 60 95,635 (35.8%). In 2016, Cooper won again, with 171,111 (62.6%) to 102,433 (37.4%), increased voter turnout because it was a presidential year. In 2018, another midterm, Cooper’s total went way up, presumably because of Swift:
Cooper- 177,923 (67.8%)
Jody Ball (R)- 84,317 (32.2%)
Cooper called her endorsement “like manna from heaven.” In 2020, the GOP didn’t bother to run anyone against him. Instead they worked on another way to defeat him— a severe 2022 gerrymander that removed many Democratic voters and added lots of rural MAGAts. The district’s partisan lean went from D+17 to R+15. Cooper declined to even run.
In 2016, Trump won a landslide victory in Tennessee— 1,522,925 (60.72%) to 870,695 (34.7%). Two years later Tennessee had an election for an open Senate seat and neo-fascist Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn faced off against former governor Phil Bredesen. Her election wasn’t anything like the Trump landslide of two years earlier (nor two years hence when Trump beat Biden 60.7% to 37.4%). Blackburn one the deep red state 1,227,483 (54.7%) to 985,450 (43.9%). Even with a much smaller voter turnout (61.9% in 2016 vs 54.5% in 2018), Bredesen outpolled Hillary while Blackburn underperformed Trump. Still, Bredesen only won the same 3 blue counties Hillary won: Davidson, Hayward and Shelby. Bredesen won that by much bigger margins:
Davidson Co.- Hillary 59.8%, Bredesen 70.6% (Biden 64.5%)
Hayward Co.- Hillary 54.3%, Bredesen 58.6% (Biden 53.9%)
Shelby Co.- Hillary 61.9%, Bredesen 65.6% (Biden 64.4%)
At least in part, that’s the Swift factor. Bredesen also lost by a lot less in red counties:
Knox Co (Knoxville)- Hillary 34.8%, Bredesen 47.7% (Biden 41.4%)
Hamilton Co (Chattanooga)- Hillary 38.8%, Bredesen 48.7% (Biden 44.1%)
Montgomery Co (Clarksville)- Hillary 37.7%, Bredesen 47.8% (Biden 42.3%)
Rutherford Co (Murfreesboro)- Hillary 34.2%, Bredesen 46.1% (Biden 41.2%)
Swift has a huge social media presence— 94.9 million followers on Twitter for example. Morning Consult found that 53% of U.S. adults consider themselves fans and 16% “avid fans.” Worldwide, she’s sold over 200 million records and has won a dozen Grammies
The enormous demand for tickets to Swift’s “Eras” tour— over 3.5 million people registered for its pre-sale alone— crashed the Ticketmaster platform and single-handedly renewed accusations that the company is monopolizing the live event industry.
The Swift fandom, which outnumbers that of other pop stars like Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus and Harry Styles, is largely made up of millennials, and leans white, suburban and Democratic, according to the Morning Consult survey. Swift has not yet earned the admiration of many Gen Zers, but perhaps her “Eras” tour can change that. Nearly three-fourths (74%) of self-described avid Swift fans are white. Majorities also identified as Democrats (55%) and live in suburban areas (53%).
Want to know why the GOP is so afraid of her? Florida, Ohio, Virginia and New York, all states with crucial congressional elections this year have the most Google searches per capita for her. Based on album sales and ticket sales, there are some states where Swift is especially popular (and influential)— California, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina… All states with immensely consequential races this year.