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Taylor Swift Harris message draws 338,000 users to government voting site
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Taylor Swift Harris message draws 338,000 users to government voting site

Taylor Swift performs during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Olympiastadion on July 27, 2024 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Thomas Niedermueller/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)

Thomas Niedermueller | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in an Instagram post on Tuesday night drew at least 337,826 visitors to Vote.gov, a government website that links users to state-specific voting information, a spokesperson for the U.S. General Services Administration told CNBC.

Swift announced her endorsement minutes after the first debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump.

In her recommendation on Instagram, the music superstar directed her followers to the website Vote.gov, encouraging them to do their own research and register to vote as soon as possible.

“I will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election,” Swift wrote. “I also find it much easier to vote early. I will link in my story where you can register and where you can find early voting dates and info.”

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Swift’s custom URL link to Vote.gov was responsible for a flood of visitor traffic to the website.

Vote.gov has had a Swift boost before.

Last year, Swift posted a similar link to the Vote.gov website to encourage her followers to register to vote. The website saw a 1,226% increase in traffic in the hour following Swift’s 2023 post, NPR reported last year.

Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org, told NPR that the website saw an average of 13,000 visitors every 30 minutes following that post.

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage

Swift’s endorsement for the presidency has already earned her the ire of Trump and his campaign.

The Republican presidential candidate said in an interview with Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning that Swift would “probably pay a price for that in the marketplace.”

His running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, agreed with the bitter sentiments.

“We admire Taylor Swift’s music, but I don’t think most Americans, whether they like her music, are fans of her or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and issues of most Americans,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.

Trump had previously indicated that he would accept Swift’s endorsement if he received it.

In August, when AI-generated images of Swift endorsing Trump circulated on social media, Trump posted on his Truth Social account: “I accept.”

Swift wrote in her Tuesday night post that her support for Harris was partly a response to the fake AI images.

“It was recently brought to my attention that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was posted on his site,” the megastar wrote. “I need to be very transparent about my true plans for this election as a voter.”