Taylor Swift shocked most of the free world several weeks ago when she came out of the woods and threw her support behind a pair of Democratic political candidates in Tennessee.
In a heartfelt and lengthy Instagram post, the singer endorsed Jim Cooper for House of Representatives in her native state and Phil Bredesen for Senate.
How did her preferred nominees do? Well…
Cooper defeated Jody Bell by a whopping 35 points in what was clearly a not very competitive race.
But Bredesen failed to help Democrats gain a majority over Republicans in the Senate. He lost by about 14 points to Marsha Blackburn.
Oh well, right?
You can’t win ‘em all and the important thing is that Swift used her platform for something she believes in, prompting an enormous surge in voter registration by doing so.
Nope, sorry. That wasn’t the important thing according to at least one Conservative pundit out there.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham took to Twitter after Bredsen’s failed bid to rub his loss in the face of the pop star, something totally normal and mature for her to do.
“Hey @taylorswift13, haters gonna hate. #shakeitoff,” Ingraham wrote following the election results.
Ingraham has a history of going after young singer, as she previously labeled Ariana Grande as spoiled and entitled.
In this case, however, she wasn’t the only famous person to cite Swift’s endorsement in her summary of the midterm elections.
Stephen Colbert also poked fun at the Tennessee Senator outcome during his live episode of The Late Show.
“I guess Tay-Tay didn’t have that much sway-sway, and Blackburn’s support for the Trump administray-stray eventually outweighed-weigh the president’s support for higher teacher pay-pay at the end of the day-day,” he joked.
He poorly joked, we should add.
After failing to offer her support for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and after remaining silent for years on basically all social issues, Swift took social media followers by surprise exactly one month ago.
“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,” she wrote at the outset of her unexpected endorsement at the time.
She continued:
“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.”
What issues did Taylor have with eventual winner Blackburn?
“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.”
In the end, Swift’s message earned her mockery from Donald Trump and a few others out there.
But we hope she was not dismayed from getting more involved in the future.
She has a very powerful voice. It would be a shame if she chose not to use it.
