Midterm Elections: What Election Day Looks Like Across America in 2018
An on-the-ground look from supporters of Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke.
What America’s midterm elections have lacked in popularity in the past, they’ve certainly made up for this Election Day, in 2018. The highly anticipated build-up to this November may be best illustrated by one Taylor Swift, who broke her political silence to weigh in on the races in her home state, Tennessee—and not just with a political pedicure. Since October, she’s also left behind her flowery lyrics in favor of strongly worded statements, denouncing the Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn, and putting in a good word for Blackburn’s Democrat opponent, Phil Bredesen. On a smaller scale, that’s meant a boon for Swift’s album sales; on a much larger one, it may very well have upended the state’s fate.
Swift, of course, hasn’t been alone. Oprah Winfrey, Michael B. Jordan, and Will Ferrell have been keeping busy knocking on doors for the Democrat Stacey Abrams, who’s running against the Trump-endorsed Republican Brian Kemp. As of this Election Day, the masses who’ve been lobbying for Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat running against Ted Cruz in Texas, include not just Martha Stewart, but Beyoncé. And while Demi Lovato may have refrained from endorsing a candidate, she definitely still made waves with the Instagram she shared from her local voting booth on Tuesday, which just so happens to have been her first post since July, when she overdosed.
With all that going on, it’s been surprisingly easy to lose sight of the real group that matters this Election Day: the 300 million or so other non-A-lister Americans, many of whom have spent this Election Day matching their celebrity counterparts in enthusiasm. That’s been particularly true on Instagram, aka the go-to platform for selfie proof that you voted. (The race between Abrams and Kemp appears to have even prompted the hashtag “#postthepeach,” for Georgians to share their voting stickers.) Take a look at their dispatches from the South, and more scenes playing out in the most closely watched states in America, here.
Related: The Best Celebrity “I Voted” Selfies and Memes From the 2018 Midterm Elections
