Twenty-two-year-old chanteuse Nellie McKay has spent plenty of time in past weeks in the swing state of Florida campaigning for women's rights and singing the praises of her Woman of the Year, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

"I only met her once, but she's near perfection!" McKay gushes to Rolling Stone. "She's got such palpable charisma, like a movie star, but very real and sweet -- and beautifully un-programmed." McKay insists that Heinz Kerry is our model for a modern first lady: "She actually speaks her mind!" she says. "There's something very disturbingly stand-by-your-man about Laura Bush. And I just think, 'Come on, man! This is supposed to be a feminist society!'"

The singer-songwriter -- whose Cole Porter-esque tunes are spiced with provocative, playful lyrics -- was even inspired to write a song in Heinz Kerry's honor, which she's been playing at her live shows. But it was at a recent Florida fundraiser that McKay was able to play "Teresa" for the woman herself.

"I was at a Planned Parenthood event where Gloria Steinem spoke and I performed," explains McKay excitedly. "Gloria and I went to a Hilary Clinton rally, and I shook hands with her -- which was great! And that night, I met Teresa and got to play her a part of the song." The homage includes lyrics such as "You treat her less than fair/She'll cut you down to size/Sharp as a razor/Don't you insult Ms. Kerry/Don't you dismiss Heinz/Oh-ee, Teresa!"

In addition to her more immediate activism -- McKay spent the weekend in Pennsylvania, another battleground state, and will be calling new voters on Election Day to remind them to get to the polls -- McKay has been trying without avail to air the video for her song "David," the lead track from her 2004 debut double-CD Get Away From Me. The homemade clip inter-cuts charming footage of the singer mooning for the camera with politically charged imagery of the war in Iraq. It's a decidedly anti-Bush tune, with lines such as "Mister Bushie says/I'm your president/I have lots to say/Hey hey hey/Click goes the remote/ There you have my vote/Catchin' the next boat out of here." Unfortunately, due to rights issues -- there's quite a bit of footage lifted from CNN -- the video may remain on the shelf until a DVD compilation set for early next year.

McKay's most recent live show was last Thursday's benefit for the Jazz Foundation and tribute to the late Ray Charles at the Apollo Theater in her Harlem neighborhood. McKay found herself singing a rendition of "Hit the Road, Jack" with some of the original Raylettes. "It was really fun. I wore my little 'girl group' outfit," McKay says. "I'm so intrigued by his songs -- you can't even tell the work that went into it! And I like the whole kick-the-guy-out-of-the-house sentiment, too."

While not onstage, McKay barely has time to work on her next album, swamped instead with a number of special projects, including auditions for a Broadway musical which she refuses to name ("I'll jinx it!") and writing the score for the upcoming film musical adaptation of Katherine Arnoldi's young adult novel, The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom.

Known for her alternately smoky and rollicking live shows, McKay is eager to put out a live album and DVD next year -- but on her own terms. "Honestly, I don't feel like playing for upper-middle-class audiences anymore," she says. "I just get a little tired of playing for the intelligentsia, you know?" The solution? To shoot a series of special concerts in women's prisons and domestic violence shelters. "If I was to pick a live album, it would be one of the Johnny Cash albums, something with more reality to it," McKay adds. "I've done plenty of concerts that were set up to make me look good, and that just makes the music stagnant."