Taylor Swift had said that Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn–a Republican from the pop star’s adopted home state of Tennessee–had a voting record and stance on women’s issues that “terrified” her. She wrote on Instagram that she would like to continue voting for women but “cannot support Marsha Blackburn.” She called out Blackburn for having voted against equal pay for women and against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Blackburn, meanwhile, went on Fox to defend herself.
TIFF WITH TAYLOR. Congressman Marsha Blackburn breaks her silence on Taylor Swift’s endorsement of her democratic opponent. pic.twitter.com/nIKgEmfxaF
— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) October 10, 2018
In her call to action, Swift definitely did her part to motivate some voters. Vote.com said it saw a spike in voter registrations–71,000 young people–in a three-day period after Swift’s comments.
However, it looks like that wasn’t enough. Blackburn tonight defeated Democrat Phil Bredesen by a comfortable margin to win a Tennessee Senate seat.
Support from Hollywood types can cut two ways in political races. They can help liberal candidates, but they can also further entrench conservative voters who don’t have much love for liberal zillionaires who dress up and sing for a living.
Congrats to @taylorswift13 for finally chiming in on politics only to have your candidate lose.
— Nate (@TheHyprSloth) November 7, 2018
Not that Blackburn’s win is anything to celebrate. For instance, she has proven willing to sell out consumer interests for the sake of Big Telco, sponsoring the 2017 House bill that freed broadband providers to sell consumers’ personal information to advertisers. Not surprisingly, she’s taken more campaign cash from telecom industry players like Charter, AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast than anyone else in Congress.
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