Taylor Swift ‘not a psy-op’: Vote.org CEO responds to Fox News segment

Andrea Hailey, the CEO of Vote.org, is pushing back on a segment that aired on Jesse Watters’s Fox News program suggesting Taylor Swift could be a “psy-op” for the Pentagon.

“I wonder who got to her from The White House or wherever,” Watters said on his show Tuesday night. “Who makes that initial handshake.”

Swift late last year made an Instagram post encouraging her millions of followers to register to vote, which resulted in a surge in registrations across the country.

The surge has resulted in a number of right-wing conspiracies suggesting Swift could be a government asset which they are using as part of a broader campaign to fight disinformation.

Hailey said Vote.org’s partnership with Swift is “helping all Americans make their voices heard at the ballot box.”

“Not a psy-op or a Pentagon asset,” Hailey wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Just the biggest nonpartisan platform in America helping young people register & cast their vote.”

Swift has exploded in popularity in recent years, particularly among young people, and has been outspoken on political issues in the past.

Young voters typically lean Democratic, but President Biden appears to be losing ground with the demographic. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed former President Trump ahead of Biden by six points among registered voters under 30.