Taylor Swift Promises to Get ‘Political’ in Upcoming Music

Pop megastar Taylor Swift revealed in a recent interview that she has no plans to give up her political activism mere months after her failed effort to help elect former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) to the U.S. Senate.
“I definitely think there are political undertones in the new music I made,” Taylor Swift told the German publication RTL. “I’m not planning to stop encouraging young people to vote and to try to get them to talk about what’s going on in our country. I think that’s one of the most important things I could do.”

In October 2018, Swift shocked the entertainment world by breaking her long-held silence on politics with an endorsement of Bredesen for U.S. Senate and Democrat Jim Cooper for U.S. House of Representatives, citing their record on LGBT issues.

“As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” Shake It Off singer wrote. “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.”

While Blackburn prevailed over Bredesen, Swift’s social media posts lead to an increase in voter registration across the country, BuzzFeed reported at the time. “We are up to 65,000 registrations in a single 24-hour period since T. Swift’s post,” Vote.org communications director Kamari Guthrie said.

Swift’s political activist didn’t stop after her midterm election plea.

In April, the Tennessee Equality Project, a non-profit which advocates for the equal rights of LGBTQ people in the Volunteer State, announced Swift donated $113,000 to the group.