GenZ influencers: the new swing voters?
The race for the White House—now re-set for the Internet—moves into high gear
Both parties, post-Biden, are now re-making their campaigns for the Internet, using new digital tools to enlist the help of America’s next-gen influencers reshaping media, culture and power to connect more deeply and directly with voters online. Might America’s 41 million GenZers ultimately decide who wins in November?
NEW YORK— With just two months left until Election Day, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are pivoting their campaigns to resonate more powerfully with the GenZ crowd—and most of it is happening online.
GenZ influencers are now the key players, connecting with new communities through platforms like TikTok, Twitch, Kick and Instagram. Both campaigns, just a couple of months ago obsessed with Joe Biden’s age, are now racing in the final stretch to secure the support of young voters by leveraging pop culture, meme culture, and digital-first strategies.
For Harris, this means ZOOM rallies, TikTok collaborations, GenZ forums and a surge in polls. For Trump, it’s now all about bro culture, gaming platforms, and GenZ and Millennial partnerships with male-centric influencers like Adin Ross and the Nelk Boys.
GenZ influencers and the Internet “have never been more important to electoral politics,” says John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. Volpe, the author of Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America, says GenZ influencers “are today’s tastemakers, meme sharers, video creators and organizers and now wield significant power when it comes to persuasion and encouraging millions to vote.”
“A month ago, when Joe Biden was the nominee,” says Leah Feiger, WIRED’s senior politics editor, “it looked like (the Democratic Party) couldn’t figure out how to put a single TikTok or Instagram post together without being accused of being the cringiest grandparents imaginable. And then? Everything changed.”
Digital Dollars
Between now and November, both campaigns and their affiliated political action committees plan to spend hundreds of millions of new dollars on digital media to fuel their re-set strategies.
Since Harris stepped into the race, Democrats have raised $615 million—more than three times what the Trump campaign raised for the period—and last month, political ad marketers say, grassroots dollars came in faster and in bigger amounts than either party has seen in recent history.
The Harris campaign is committing more than $200 million of its more than $300 million ad budget for the next two months to focus on targeted social media, streaming and short-form video content to reach more voters on their phones and other devices. The Harris TikTok team, comprised of five staffers all under the age of 25, is being responsive to what is trending day-to-day on the platform, creating a kind of call-and-response with the app’s users that is proving remarkably effective in building support. Over the next nine weeks, the campaign will be focusing most on Midwest voters and deputizing additional teams of GenZ influencers and digital content creators to help “flood the zone” on TikTok and other social platforms popular in the battleground states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
The Trump-Vance campaign, for its part, is spending roughly $135 million on a barrage of digital attack ads to bring Harris down. Team Trump and its allies have been focusing mostly on the Sun Belt, outspending the Harris campaign in Georgia and Arizona and as much as the Harris team and its allies in Pennsylvania. Trump’s new attack ads have already begun to run on traditional TV, and this fall, his campaign will be spending more heavily on running digital video ads across a wide range of social media platforms, especially those most popular with young male gamers and livestreamers. In the battleground states, there is the highest chance of turning a red state blue, or a blue state red, and the race is now in a dead heat.
In all, says national media strategist Shawna Presley Vercher, some $1.9 billion worth of political advertising, marketing and messaging—“a gargantuan amount”— will be used to fuel both campaigns, largely on social media, to influence how the next two months will play out and who wins. [See our March story, New Power, on how TikTok’s digital crowd is challenging traditional power this election year.]
Harris’s Feel-Good Focus
Democrats are now registering more voters than Republicans, and post Labor Day polling says the Democratic lead among young voters is back, with Harris topping Trump by an average of 20 points among GenZers.
Harris ZOOM rallies continue to keep raising millions of dollars online from new groups the DNC is targeting for support, including Grateful Dead fans, Christian evangelicals and conservative Republicans. ( Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and her father, Dick Cheney, the former Republican Vice President, this week endorsed Harris, citing “the danger that Donald Trump poses.”)
Harris also keeps moving ahead in swing state polling, while also boosting her reach online. Beyond the digital firsts staged at the Democratic Convention—holding meme parties too numerous to mention and hosting 200 of the most strategically influential digital content creators and online influencers to cover the convention (a first for the DNC)—the Harris campaign is also embracing pop culture and social media to establish an emotional connection with GenZ voters.
It’s working. On TikTok this week, after @KamalHQ posted an August recap video of the DNC convention using the just-released song, Diet Pepsi, by the young singer/composer Addison Rae, Rae reposted it to her 88 million followers on TikTok—a decision heralded by GenZ political influencer @matthew.rein as being “one of the most important stories of the election so far.” Explained Rein: “Addison Rae, the fifth biggest influencer on TikTok, deciding she’s willing to now associate herself with Kamala Harris and the campaign in this way, even as small as it might seem … is a confirmation of everything KamalaHQ and that campaign have been working towards” to win over GenZ.
Rein added: “Sure, we can talk about policies and about the 725-page Inflation Reduction Act until we’re both blue in the face. All of that is very important but it doesn’t change the fact that people vote based on how politics makes them feel. …Young people have the power to decide this election. Should people vote just because Addison Rae reposted a KamalaHQ video? No. But it shows that Kamala Harris and her campaign know how to connect with young people. And that, in my opinion, will make the difference this November.”
Adds fellow GenZ influencer Tanna Wroblewski, aka @yourfinestpardon, who has 73.7K TikTok followers: “It’s so cool that the Harris campaign is showing up on TikTok, where all of us are having the important conversations, to really encourage people to get out there and vote. …Dare I say it’s now an exciting time to be watching and learning about and being a part of politics?”
Trump Courts ‘bro culture’
Donald Trump, meanwhile—pushing to regain his footing in the wake of Biden’s retreat— is now warming up to some of the biggest and most influentual “bro culture” gamers and online streamers who are already voicing their opposition to Harris. Some of the social media stars being tapped by Trump and his allies include Mr. White and U.F.C., Dave Portnoy and his Barstool Sports media network, YouTubers like Jake and Logan Paul, podcasters including Theo Von and livestreamers like Adin Ross.
Adin Ross, 23, who now has 1.2 million followers on Kick, a new gaming and livestreaming platform, is emerging as a key Trump influencer, helping to expand Trump’s MAGA base and boost its reach among young, and predominantly white young men, some known for their support of Trump’s re-emerging brand of “masculinity politics.” Ross, an internet personality and online streamer known for his collaborations with celebrities, had 7.3 million followers on Twitch before being banned recently for making antisemitic and racist comments. Now on Kick, Ross is building back his following by making Trump a regular guest. Last month, he gifted Trump with a gold Rolex wristwatch and new Tesla Cybertruck during a livestream to thank him. Ross’s August interview with Trump attracted more than a half million viewers; Ross urged them to vote for Trump in November.
Trump is also getting support from the Nelk Boys, a pair of self-described “pranksters and partiers” who are the YouTube influencers Kyle Forgeard, 30, and Jesse William Sebastiani, 31. The Nelk Boys have 4.6 million followers on TikTok, 7.56 million subscribers on YouTube and host the Full Send podcast, on which Trump has been a guest twice, along with mega-influencers and content creators Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson. J.D. Vance was interviewed on the Full Send podcast last month. Send the Vote, a new political action committee co-founded by John Shahidi, the president of Nelk, is raising $20 million to spend on voter registration drives aimed at Nelk’s young male fans. Known for being controversial, The Nelk Boys gained new followers during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last month by posting a “prank” video on TikTok of a man using a sledgehammer to pound in Kamala Harris’ face on a big-screen TV while watching her deliver a televised speech at the convention.
“Now that a gender gap is a mega-trend spanning across swing states and racial groups and is most prominent among younger voters,” New York Times reporter John Branch says, Trump considers these new platforms a powerful battleground on which to fight Harris—one which his campaign aides say will be able to help Trump regain much of the social media support he had for his 2020 bid for reelection against Biden. [For more on the gender gap, see our July story, A New Gender Gap, Rising.]
Both the Trump and Harris campaigns, for the next two months, will also be focusing more aggressively on young voters in rural communities previously overlooked, unreachable or not yet into politics.
Names and Numbers
Using targeted influencers to connect directly with even some of the smaller digital communities online can expand a candidate’s base of young voters focused on key issues and down-ballot candidates—and help campaigns burst through the digital echo chambers shaping most social media feeds. “There are now so many different spaces where people are getting their news, where people are getting influenced by the people around them in their For You feeds,” says Makena Kelly, WIRED’s politics reporter. Republicans may have locked in more of the big business influencers, like Elon Musk, Kelly adds, “but both parties are reaching a lot more of those smaller power influencers and creators who probably, if you think about it, collectively have a much wider reach.”
Here are some of the top GenZ influencers and online content creators focused on young voters, a list co-curated by WIRED’s Kelly and excerpted here, with permission. [For a fuller list, see WIRED’s Visual Guide to the Influencers Shaping the 2024 Election.]
These influencers and content creators are being cited based on the size of their followings and their data-driven influence leading followers politically:
Top political influencers and creators on the left
Josh Helfgott: He makes TikToks that deliver news related to LGBTQ+ rights and has 5.5 million followers on the platform and 598K on Instagram.
Carlos Eduardo Espina: A TikToker and immigrant rights activist whom The New York Times referred to as a “one-man Telemundo.” He met with Joe Biden to discuss immigration policy last year. He has 934K followers on Instagram and 10.3 million on TikTok.
Heather Cox Richardson: A historian and professor at Boston College who writes a weekly newsletter about how current political moments intersect with history. She has been a guest on our New Rules Media podcast and has 1.5 million followers on Substack.
Gen Z for Change: This youth-led nonprofit, formerly known as TikTokers for Biden, brands itself as “the place where the creator economy and progressive politics intersect on social media.” The group, which helped Biden/Harris in 2020 and partnered with the White House on other campaigns, is now helping a deep network of new influencers and social media creators spread calls to action over TikTok. Last year, it launched Gen-Z X El Cambio, a hub run by and for GenZ Latinos to share their perspectives and educate others on U.S. politics and pop culture. Gen Z for Change has 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 100K on X.
Vitus Spehar, aka @underthedesknews: Spehar is one of the most influential news creators on TikTok. They have 3.1 million followers on the platform and post video explainers covering current events and electoral politics. They also have attended multiple White House influencer events.
Top influencers and creators on the right
WIRED’s top five picks, by size of followers, are:
Elon Musk: The CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX and the wealthiest person in the world, Musk bought X (formerly Twitter) in 2022. He endorsed Donald Trump in July and interviewed him on X last month. Musk has 193 million followers on X and is promoting a theory that a free-thinking “Republic” could only exist under the decision-making of high-status males.
The Nelk Boys: The Nelk Boys began as YouTube pranksters but now host their own podcast, Full Send, where their commentary intersects with right-wing talking points. Trump and J.D. Vance have been among their recent podcast guests. The Nelk Boys have 7.3 million followers on YouTube.
Logan Paul: A professional wrestler and co-founder of Prime Hydration, who got his start on Vine before transitioning to YouTube. He has 23 million followers on YouTube and he is the older brother to Jake Paul. Logan hosted Donald Trump on his Impaulsive podcast last June.
Jake Paul: A professional boxer and vlogger, Jake got his start on Vine and officially endorsed Donald Trump after the assassination attemp on him made in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this summer. Jake campaigned with Vivek Ramaswamy this year and collaborated with Andrew Yang in 2020. He has 20.7 million followers on YouTube.
Ben Shapiro: Ben is the co-founder of The Daily Wire and one of the most popular conservative commentators and podcasters. He has 7 million followers on YouTube.
Who are the online political influencers and creators you follow, or those you’ve just added to your watch list, and why? Please share with us and your fellow subscribers by providing a link or two as a comment.
NOTE: This post was updated on September 7th with new polling and campaign budget data. Several new links also have been added, referring to additional political influencers to watch online.
FWIW: If you do an update to this article, it is worth checking out 'GenZ for Change'--a group formerly known as Tik Tokers for Biden--which helped Biden/Harris in 2020, and partnered with the White House in other campaigns. They have phenomenal reach.
Thanks! We've added them to the piece, along with some new ad budget numbers both campaigns have just released. Thank you for your note and readership! Means the world.