New age of campaigning? TikTok influencers spread candidates’ messages

Las Vegas resident Sulhee Jessica Woo is known on social media for making elaborate bento boxes for her kids’ school lunches. Lately, though, she’s been posting a different kind of video.

In one video from early September, Woo, who has 5.6 million followers on TikTok, danced with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ daughter Hope at TIABI Coffee & Waffle. In another video, Vice President Kamala Harris’ niece, Meena, feeds Woo nachos at the Democratic convention.

Woo’s videos are part of the Harris campaign’s influencer outreach program, part of a larger strategy from campaigns to engage with untapped voters that are not necessarily paying attention to traditional media.

Meeting the voter where they are

With TV and radio consumption down year after year and people turning to social media and podcasts, campaigns are employing increasingly creative ways to reach voters — especially the youth bloc, which makes up a large percentage of the electorate but frequently doesn’t vote — through social media outreach and out-of-the-box interviews.

For instance, presidential candidates have appeared on popular nonpolitical podcasts that also video stream to social media platforms. Former President Donald Trump was recently on Theo Von’s comedy podcast, “This Past Weekend.” On TikTok, he has more than 7 million followers. This week, Harris, while declining many traditional media requests, appeared on “Call Her Daddy,” a podcast ranked No. 2 on Spotify.

“You’re trying to reach parts of the potential electorate that are not going to be engaged in politics,” said UNLV political scientist David Damore. “One of the things about our media environment is you can now effectively not be informed. You don’t have to be subjected to the news. You can effectively opt out through your media choices.”

Three in five Gen Zers say they turn to social media at least once a week for news, though politics ranks near the bottom of the generation’s news interests, according to a Morning Consult survey.

Traditional methods of voter engagement such as TV ads and mailers are one-way communications and difficult to assess in terms of their effectiveness, Damore said.

Research also suggests that people are more likely to listen to or be persuaded by those who they perceive as having similar values, so having influencers spread the campaigns’ messages may be effective and may come across as more organic than traditional modes of engagement, he said. Turning toward social media influencers is also an effective way to communicate campaign messages in a low-cost way without any liabilities of traditional ads that could be subject to lawsuits, Damore said.

Harris’ influencer strategy

For Harris, who entered the presidential campaign late in the election cycle and has to catch up to Trump, a well-known figure with a previous presidential record, engaging with social media influencers has been a way to increase that name recognition, according to a campaign spokesperson.

The Harris-Walz campaign developed an influencer outreach program to engage with local influencers, connecting with 106 influencers in the Silver State with a combined 12.5 million followers, according to the campaign. It invites local content creators to different events to spread the campaign’s messages.

At the Harris-Walz rally in Las Vegas in August, for example, the campaign invited 29 influencers, whose content of the rally received a combined 352,584 views, according to the campaign.

Las Vegas resident Shaunda Necole, one of those influencers, has a blog dedicated to cooking soul food, as well as an Instagram account with more than 100,000 followers dedicated to travel tips for Las Vegas. Lately, she’s been posting to her Instagram story what it’s like as a campaign volunteer for Harris. She posted videos of attending Harris’ rally in Las Vegas, making buttons for a watch party, phone banking for the campaign and going door to door canvassing for the campaign. One video showed her and other campaign volunteers dancing to a remix of Kamala Harris saying “we’re not going back.”

Necole said she’s heard many people say politics doesn’t relate to them and they don’t tune in.

“When we’re meeting people where they’re at on their social media platform of choice, then they feel comfortable,” Necole said. “It’s organic for them because it’s where they choose to consume content.”

The campaign is reaching people who would have probably never been reached otherwise, she said, “because traditional campaigning just didn’t happen this way, through a TikTok or an Instagram reel or an Instagram story.”

Trump’s strategy

The Trump campaign is also gravitating toward different influencers and content to engage untapped voters to engage with people who don’t necessarily think about politics, according to Damore.

Trump has been active with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the political science professor said. A strong gender gap has emerged, he said, with many young men drawn to Trump and young women drawn to Harris.

UFC CEO and Las Vegas local Dana White, a friend of Trump’s, has been a vocal advocate for the former president, who appeared at a UFC event in New Jersey in June to a loud applause from the audience.

A Trump campaign official said the campaign’s approach is “more organic” than Harris’. It lacks a formal influencer engagement program, but influencers organically post about Trump without the campaign’s involvement, a campaign official said.

“Our organic reach is second to none and is unparalleled,” the campaign official said. “And we are super grateful for all of the great supporters that we have online.”

Well-known social media stars have collaborated with the former president. TikTok star Bryce Hall endorsed the former president at his recent Las Vegas rally, and YouTuber and professional wrestler Logan Paul hosted him on his popular podcast. The NELK Boys, popular TikTokers with 4.7 million followers, have also promoted the former president’s campaign to an audience that is 89 percent male.

The campaign also provided a content war room for conservative social media influencers during the presidential debate in Philadelphia, the Trump campaign official said.

Effectiveness?

The campaigns’ effectiveness to engage with untapped voting blocs will not be seen until after Nov. 5, but the new voter outreach method is likely here to stay. By 2028, the media environment in terms of streaming and getting their information will be different from the traditional TV ads during campaign seasons, according to Damore.

“I think it’s just amazing marketing, and I think it’s smart,” Woo said. “Everyone looks at the news from their phone now, and I feel like this is just a way to do things the right way.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.