After Taylor Swift's endorsement, HeadCount Exec talks about music's role in getting out the vote

Taylor Swift's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Sept. 10 was “the beginning of the journey” for millions of apolitical Swifties and celebrity news fanatics, according to Lucille Wenegiemeexecutive director of HeadCount. “They might click on a link, but they don't immediately go to Google, 'Where's all my voting stuff?'” he says. “Someone else might talk about it, and it shows up in their feed somewhere else, and maybe they see a show in October. It's a lot of touch points that tend to move people across the finish line.”

Wenegieme, a former scientist who worked in the fashion industry before joining the HeadCount team as a communications executive in 2019, has spent months observing how young music fans think about getting involved in election campaigns. An attention-grabbing announcement can spur them to action, but so can a smaller artist at a neighborhood club.

“Having someone who's related to you, who's playing at the local spot you go to, and you can actually have a beer with them, talking from the stage about how you can get out and vote, is super powerful,” he says. “I don't want to discount what people with not as much range as Taylor Swift can do.”

By phone from New York, where she's worked at HeadCount for the past year, Wenegieme discussed what it's like, as someone who mobilizes volunteer groups at concerts and festivals, to be a peripheral part of the music business.

What does your background as a scientist working on nitrogen-fixing bacteria have to do with getting out on the ballot? 

It just brings me a different perspective. It's more about not being afraid to ask the stupid question. [And] to have the steep learning curve in a new industry.

What do you learn about the music industry in this job?

One of the things I admired about HeadCount when I first learned about it a few years ago: You start with the music fan. It's probably the best way to break into the music industry. It feels like a cheat code, to have a nice, fun thing to do and not have to be in it with some of our partners, who support artists in the industry.

What is the most effective way to engage fans and encourage them to vote?

There is no easy ticket. The most famous musicians have learned that you can throw away millions of dollars [fund-raising] gigs and don't do as much as you think you could – but it contributes to this overall culture of participation. We do things in person. This is our bread and butter. We've been doing it for 20 years. We're having these peer-to-peer conversations with people and discussing with them why it's important for their voice to be heard. We are completely non-partisan and this brings us great confidence.

Where do geographically focused concert activities and major political campaigns, which focus on swing states, intersect?

We have different goals than campaigns. Campaigns focus on achieving the smallest margins they can to get the result they want. We want to bring together as many people as possible, anywhere, anytime, not just for the presidential election, not just in a midterm [election]. We have 60,000 volunteers in 38 states and DC Many times are extremely regionally focused. These are people who go to shows all the time in their areas, they know the venues, they know the artists that come from their market. This is the connection. “These are the people in my town I watch shows with” — that's what's important, not the people who live in a certain zip code because it's been polled a certain way.

How do you most effectively engage a new voter and motivate them to register to vote?

Our team leaders are trained on the latest voter registration laws across the country. With music festivals, you might have someone who traveled across state lines to get to that place. We want to make sure we can support them wherever they live. We're not asking them to give money on the spot, we're just asking them to do something. We keep it really functional.

In the week after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race in late July and Vice President Harris took over, voter registration increased 69 percent, according to HeadCount data. Registrations increased 54% among 18- to 24-year-olds after July 21. What was going on there? 

There was the assassination attempt, a vice presidential candidate being picked on the Republican ticket, and the switch to the Democratic side—a level of surprise that permeated the news cycle, so there were more young people listening. And the change of candidate, for many young people, was validation for something they were telling us. They wanted to see different options in general. Again, we don't tell people how to vote, but we listen a lot.

What advice would you give to both campaigns about how to use music more effectively to get young people to vote for you?

Don't think of music as something you can use. Think of musicians, and the music community, as a community to work with in the same way you might think of ethnic communities of people to work with. This is what we do.