*By Christian Smith*
Taylor Swift's decision to break her political silence and urge her followers to register to vote is an incredibly valuable gift to organizations trying to get out the younger vote on Nov. 6, said DoSomething.org CEO Aria Finger.
"It does matter when young people see other people voting, other celebrities get involved," Finger said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar. "We want to make it cool for young people to get out and vote."
After the pop star posted a message to [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/BopoXpYnCes/?taken-by=taylorswift) encouraging her over 112 million followers to vote ー and effectively endorsing two Democratic candidates in Tennessee ー registering platform Vote.org said it received a surge in new registrants numbering in the thousands.
At stake in this year's midterms are all 435 U.S. House seats and 33 U.S. Senate seats.
Voter registration has been an essential goal for DoSomething.org, which has registered over 70,000 new voters this year alone.
Beyond voter registration, Finger said there has been a general boost in civic engagement from millennials and Gen Z since Donald Trump was elected president almost two years ago.
"They just want solutions," Finger said.
"Young people say, 'What can I do in my local community to make a difference because the old people, they're not helping us.'"
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-issues-uniting-millennials-going-into-the-midterms).
Transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr was barred from participating on the House floor as Republican leaders voted Wednesday to silence her for the rest of 2023 session.
The DeSantis board said Disney’s move to retain control over their property was effectively unlawful and performed without proper public notice.
House Republicans made post-midnight changes to their sweeping debt ceiling package to win over holdouts, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed ahead Wednesday with plans to launch debate and round up support from his slim majority for a vote this week.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol opened his state visit to Washington on Tuesday by touring a NASA facility with Vice President Kamala Harris as the Biden administration looks to deepen ties with a close ally that it sees as only growing in importance in an increasingly complicated Indo-Pacific.
Colorado is set to become the first state to sign a ‘right to repair’ law allowing farmers to fix their own equipment with a bill signing Tuesday afternoon by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
President Joe Biden has formally announced he’s seeking reelection.
Three Tennessee lawmakers who became Democratic heroes for facing expulsion after participating in gun control protests visited the White House on Monday, describing themselves as “representatives of a movement" that is demanding greater restrictions on firearms to save lives.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy is hurtling toward one of the most consequential weeks of the new House Republican majority as he labors to pass a partisan package that would raise the nation's debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep cuts that some in his own party oppose.
A former advice columnist’s nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump has gone to trial.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish this job” he began when he was sworn into office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.
