Florida Democrats looking to Taylor Swift to counter Republicans – Politico

The Democratic Party is counting on three concerts by pop megastar Taylor Swift to drive young voters to the polls this November, Politico reported this week.

Swift is set to play three shows in a row at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami this October, two weeks before the November elections. While the pop icon has not endorsed any candidates or spoken about the vote, Swift endorsed Biden in 2020, and the president’s campaign team reportedly hopes to lock in an endorsement from the pop star ahead of November’s showdown with Trump.

Democrats are planning voter registration drives at her gigs and have, according to Politico, reached out to Swift and encouraged her to “use her Miami concerts to talk about issues affecting the rights of young people in Florida.”

“It’s so close to the election, and we hope that there’s a message included to encourage folks, especially her fans, to go vote,” said 27-year-old Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost. “We need the help.”

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Florida’s Democratic Party has been fighting a losing battle for a decade. Once a swing state where voters almost always chose the overall winner of presidential elections by the narrowest of margins, Florida has trended increasingly more Republican since Donald Trump won the state in 2016. 

Even as he lost the presidency, Trump picked up more votes in Florida in 2020 than in 2016, while Governor Ron DeSantis went from defeating Andrew Gillum by 0.4% in 2018 to winning a 60-40 victory over Charlie Crist in 2022, the largest margin of victory in a Florida gubernatorial election since 1982.

There are currently nearly 800,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in Florida.

Jayden D’Onofrio, who chairs the Florida Democratic Party’s Youth Council, believes that Swift’s predominantly Gen-Z fanbase could turn this tide if persuaded in sufficient numbers to vote. “People care about her. People understand the importance of her. She is a youth icon,” he told Politico, adding that party members would be dispatched to all three concerts to engage with potential voters.

Democrats are also leveraging Swift’s relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce, and plan to organize voter outreach events throughout the state when his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, take on the San Francisco 49ers at this weekend’s Super Bowl.

While liberal pundits have ridiculed claims that the White House is planning to use Swift as an election-year “Psyop,” her popularity is a potentially potent weapon for President Joe Biden. Some 53% of Americans consider themselves Taylor Swift fans, and according to the New York Times, a single social media post by Swift led to the registration of 35,000 new voters in the US last year.