| DRIVING THE DAY: It’s not just L.A. that’s having a hot labor summer. Members of SEIU-UHW have been picketing in front of dozens of Kaiser Permanente facilities across the state this week, asking the health care giant to address short staffing issues ahead of contract negotiations this fall. And today, members of SAG-AFTRA are taking to the front steps of the Capitol in Sacramento to call for a fair contract with producers while strikes continue to gum up operations in Hollywood. THE BUZZ: The final leg of Taylor Swift’s record-setting U.S. tour kicks off this weekend in California. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that the pop icon wields a formidable amount of economic power not to mention cultural clout She also, as it turns out, wields considerable political influence. It was clear from January’s Senate hearing on ticket prices that lawmakers are not above shoe-horning a lyrical pun into their testimony to get the attention of musically inclined constituents. But we’ve learned from a fellow Californian that congressional affection for Ms. Swift goes further than just perfunctory pandering. Shaadi Ahmadzadeh, a 20-year-old University of California, Berkeley data science student, has spent two years tracking down the favorite Swift songs of members of Congress. Turns out it’s a rich vein to mine. To help her, Ahmadzadeh has enlisted like-minded young politicos from Capitol Hill, the White House and advocacy groups to join in on the project. Their meticulously kept spreadsheet includes the names of all 535 lawmakers and a growing list of their favorite Swift songs, along with notes and personal commentary. She's gathered 37 responses so far, but is hoping to get enough for a robust statistical analysis. To collect the data, Ahmadzadeh and her fellow government Swifties have called lawmakers’ offices, emailed staffers, conferred with interns, tweeted at the members directly, or, if the situation allowed, walked right up to them. That’s how she learned second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s favorite TSwift bop is “Welcome to New York,” though he’s apparently also fond of her latest album, “Midnights.” Ahmadzadeh, who is studying public policy and has worked with youth political groups, approached Emhoff with the question at the White House Eid event, and snapped a selfie for good measure. She did the same thing for Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who said she had “a lot” of favorite Swift songs. Ahmadzadeh queried Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern at a roundtable with young activists. He didn’t answer the question, she said, but pulled out his phone to show them his ringtone — Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.” (His office confirms.). Ahmadzadeh is not shy about it, said her friend Marianna Pecora, a 19-year-old rising sophomore at George Washington University and an intern at the Center for American Progress and the House Democratic Women’s Caucus. “Shaadi, in the best way possible, is absolutely shameless about this,” Pecora said. “She’ll ask the Swiftie question in any circumstance.” Pecora took a chance at asking Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw during the congressional soccer match earlier this summer. The former Navy SEAL laughed, and told her it was “Love Story.” He also gave her a high-five before jogging back onto the field. Crenshaw, by the way, shares a favorite with California Rep. Robert Garcia, though the two are politically far apart. There’s something humanizing about openly loving Swift, Ahmadzadeh said. Especially in such divisive times, music can bind people together like, to borrow a song title — an invisible string. “Some of them might be really vile, evil human beings who just want to watch the world burn,” she said of lawmakers. “But at the end of the day, we’re all people, and everyone likes Taylor Swift.” The feeling has not always been mutual. After staying neutral for much of her career, Swift in recent years has become politically vocal. She’s spoken openly about support for LGBTQ rights and gun control. A single Instagram post once sent voter registration rates skyrocketing among young people. In 2018, she encouraged Tennessee fans to elect a Democrat instead of Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who won anyway. In 2020, she endorsed Joe Biden in the presidential election. And if there’s any remaining ambiguity about how Swift views the government, it might help to draw from her “Anti-Hero” lyrics. “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism, like some kind of congressman.”
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