In his speech, Markey delivered more of a call to action and took jabs at former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump – someone Swift has criticized in the past.
“There are just five fortnights until Election Day, but we are not out of the woods yet,” he said, “We have our work ahead of us to make sure we defeat this antihero wannabe, or as I like to call him, ‘Mr. Casually Cruel, Mr. Everything Revolves Around You.’”
“In the words of Taylor Swift, ‘I never trust a narcissist,’” Markey added. “And this narcissist in chief clearly doesn’t know enough about karma or what I like to call the infinite organizing power of the Swifties on this Zoom call.”
The senior Senator from Massachusetts is no stranger to Swift-lyric-easter eggs. After he staved off a primary challenge from former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, supporters of the senator repeatedly referenced the Swift song, “the last great american dynasty,” poking fun at Kennedy, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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Though the speakers on the call tried to weave light-hearted pop culture references into their remarks, the group’s organizers made a point to stress the legitimacy and seriousness of their work.
“I think one thing that maybe the media doesn’t always get right is that Swifties are just about making little posts and little bracelets. And we do do those things for sure, but I think you can see with the intentionality of this call that we really have had a lot of thought in making sure everyone is included,” said Annie Wu, the group’s political director. “We are providing opportunities, and we are really giving the resources for people to be involved and civically engage this cycle. ”
The call also had an immediate ask of its participants: Register to vote. By the end of the call, 14,000 reported registering.
The group also put out an ask with a coveted reward: Attendees who get people in their community to check their voter registration get entered into a contest to win tickets to a Swift concert.
Entries increase in value if the person they reach is a low-frequency voter, unregistered or lives in a swing state.
The group plans to have additional organizing events as the election continues since there are indeed only five fortnights left.