Taylor Swift, the pop music titan who has been notably apolitical in turbulent political times, broke her silence on Sunday and endorsed two Democratic candidates running for election in Tennessee. In a post on Instagram, Ms. Swift said she planned to vote for Phil Bredesen, who is competing in a tight Senate race against a Republican candidate backed by President Trump, and Representative Jim Cooper, an incumbent who represents the Nashville area. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country,” Ms. Swift wrote, adding that “I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.” [Never miss a pop music story: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Louder.] Ms. Swift’s political views had previously been left up to interpretation, and at times her silence was viewed as support for Mr. Trump as well as the alt-right movement. The singer is beloved by some white supremacists, who claim her as an Aryan goddess, and in 2017, her lawyers fought back against a blog post that portrayed her as a white supremacist figurehead.<doc-sep>Taylor Swift, one of the most popular singers in the world, issued a rare public endorsement on Sunday for a Democrat who broke from his party during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and lost the liberal blessing from groups like MoveOn.org. Democratic Senate candidate and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen thanked Swift for the endorsement. Swift declared her support for Bredesen over his GOP rival, Representative Marsha Blackburn. TAYLOR SWIFT BASHES BLACKBURN IN FAVOR OF TENNESSEE DEMS, BREAKING POLITICAL SILENCE “As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post. “Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.” She went on to list items that influenced her in support. She said Blackburn has voted against equal pay for woman and believes businesses have the right to refuse service to gay couples. Bredesen thanked Swift for her support, writing, “I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done.” Swift has received criticism in the past for not speaking out politically. The Guardian chastised the singer-songwriter for not openly criticizing President Donald Trump. In her Instagram post, Swift admitted to being reluctant “to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel differently about that now.” In 2013, Swift reported that Denver-based radio DJ David Mueller had placed his hand up her skirt and her bare backside during a meet-and-greet. The two engaged in a back-and-forth legal battle until a judge ruled in Swift’s favor last year. Swift’s endorsement of Bredesen comes on the heels of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation late Saturday to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh’s nomination process was marked by a bitter fight between Republicans and Democrats amid allegations that he committed sexual assault in the early 1980s. "It’s something that happened when they were in their teens, if it happened at all." — Phil Bredesen Support for Kavanaugh largely fell along party lines, with a few exceptions – including Bredesen, who said during a TV interview that he would have supported Kavanaugh’s nomination if he were a Senator because the sexual assault allegations lacked sufficient evidence, The Tennessean reported. “In my mind, you kind of ended up with a very opaque situation three and a half decades ago where there was no particular corroboration of it or disapproving it,” Bredesen reportedly said. “It’s something that happened when they were in their teens, if it happened at all. And I just sort of felt like it didn’t rise to the level of you would disqualify somebody from the Supreme Court based on that stuff.” Bredesen’s support of Kavanaugh has made him unpopular with Democrats, who have not won statewide since 2006. Two prominent Democratic groups, MoveOn and Priorities USA, have withdrawn their support, according to The Tennessean. On Friday, MoveOn tweeted that it was “cancelling a planned six-figure digital video ad expenditure for Phil Bredesen in Tennessee due to his Kavanaugh position.” Swift’s endorsement of Bredesen made no explicit mention of Kavanaugh or the sexual assault allegations, but his nomination has become a rallying cry for Democrats seeking to take back Congress in the November midterms. “So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count,” Swift wrote, concluding: “Happy Voting!”<doc-sep>Like Taylor Swift in a Taylor Swift song, Republicans have turned on Taylor Swift following the singer’s declaration that she’s voting for Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. The singer posted a lengthy, detailed explanation on Instagram on Sunday of why she intends to vote for two Democrats — Senate candidate Phil Bredesen and US House of Representatives candidate Jim Cooper— in her home state of Tennessee. In a post that went out to her more than 110 million followers, Swift points to her views on women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and systemic racism as aligning with those candidates’ more so than those of Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn, whose congressional voting record Swift said “appalls and terrifies me.” The news that the famously apolitical Swift had endorsed Democrats rocketed around the internet on Monday, eventually landing in the lap of the most powerful Republican in the country, President Donald Trump, who dismissed Swift as an uninformed voter and calculated that her endorsement of Democrats had dropped his interest in the singer’s music by about 25 percent. ”I’m sure Taylor Swift has nothing — or doesn’t know anything about [Blackburn],” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25 percent less now, okay?” Trump wasn’t the only Republican who voiced a newfound disinterest in Swift. Charlie Kirk, head of the right-wing organization Turning Point USA, told Fox and Friends that the singer should stick to singing instead of politics. “What I used to love about Taylor Swift is she stayed away from politics” -@charliekirk11 pic.twitter.com/Nd77XXnQr8 — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) October 8, 2018 Candace Owens, the communications director of Turning Point, also chimed in, saying that Swift was a Hollywood elitist and was using minorities as a political pawn: On the heels of @taylorswift13 feeling the need to, as all Hollywood elitists do, use black people and minorities as pawns to brainwash people into doing their bidding— I would like come out to Tennessee and campaign for @MarshaBlackburn. Marsha, let’s do this! #MAGA — Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 8, 2018 Owens’s threshold for celebrities getting involved with politics, and for what makes certain public figures Hollywood elites or heroes, seem to be correlated to the politics they ascribe to. Over the summer, Owens lauded Kanye West for his vocal support of Trump, and last month said that he was the bravest man in Hollywood for voicing his political beliefs: Kanye West is one of the bravest man in Hollywood right now. He was booed off stage last night for openly supporting Trump and telling the truth about the Democrats breaking down black families. PLEASE RETWEET TO SHOW @kanyewest LOVE AND SUPPORT!https://t.co/NOAwWBOYRt — Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 30, 2018 Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also chimed in and dismissed Swift’s Democratic endorsements, stating that her audience is teen girls who can’t vote: So @taylorswift13 has every right to be political but it won’t impact election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote. Still with #MarshaBlackburn — Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 8, 2018 Huckabee’s dismissal is particularly glib in its characterization of Swift’s fan base. While Swift is indeed popular with teens, her self-titled debut album came out 12 years ago, in 2006. Assuming many of her fans have stuck with her (and according to a Billboard article from 2017, her career album sales are at 31.4 million and counting), even fans who were 6-year-olds at the beginning of her career are now old enough to vote. There’s at least some anecdotal evidence that Swift’s voter-age fans are responding: As Buzzfeed explains, Swift’s Instagram post coincided with a voter registration spike in her home state of Tennessee. “[Vote.org] has received 5,183 in the state so far this month — at least 2,144 of which were in the last 36 hours [according to a Vote.org spokesperson] up from 2,811 new Tennessee voter registrations for the entire month of September and just 951 in August,” Buzzfeed reports. While it’s certainly feasible that Swift may have influenced some voters to register who may not have otherwise, it should be noted that the registration deadline in Tennessee for the November 6 elections is October 9. It makes sense that more people would register closer to the deadline than would have in August or September. Swift hasn’t yet commented on the response to her endorsement, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that now there might be bad blood between her and the Republican Party.<doc-sep>
Taylor Swift has broken years of political silence to back two Democrat candidates in the US midterm elections. The singer has remained famously apolitical in recent years – and faced criticism for not speaking out against Donald Trump’s election in 2016. But in an emotional post on Instagram, Swift has now backed two Democratic candidates in her native Tennessee. “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote on Instagram as she urged her young fans to register and vote. “I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. “I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.” Specifically, the post sees Swift backing Phil Bredesen, who is running for Senate, and Jim Cooper, who is running for the House of Representatives. Swift also criticises Marsha Blackburn – Tennessee’s Republican candidate who was last week backed by Donald Trump. “As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn”, wrote Swift. Thank you for the kind words @taylorswift13. I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans who are ready to put aside the partisan shouting and get things done. We’re ready for it. Last day to register to vote is October 9. https://t.co/6Xd6YyaJCG pic.twitter.com/CatUBkXPKe — Phil Bredesen (@PhilBredesen) October 8, 2018 “Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me…She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values.” Responding to the endorsement, Bredesen wrote on Twitter: “Thank you for the kind words @TaylorSwif13, I’m honored to have your support and that of so many Tennesseans.” Meanwhile, the alt-right are furious that Taylor Swift has endorsed Bredesen. As reported by The New Statesman, Notorious alt-right chat-forum 4-chan are upset about the change. “Goodbye Tay”, “They took her from us”, “She was supposed to be our girl!” and “Why did she break our hearts?” are just some of the many hundreds of posts that have appeared in the forum. Some were also speculating that Swift had been paid to support Bredesen. “Ever notice how every celebrity seems to be reciting the same script,” one member wrote; “All PR nonsense” added another. Others wrote: “she just doesn’t want to be labelled as a white nationalist” and “That looks ghostwritten.” Swift recently appeared in the‘Women In Music Power List’ for 2018, commissioned by BBC Woman’s Hour.