Some political strategists say Democrats are falling behind Republicans in reaching voters in an important way: They’re not active enough on platforms like TikTok.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
To get elected, politicians try to connect with voters wherever they are. And for a long time now, that’s included on social media. Some political strategists say Democrats are falling behind Republicans in reaching voters in an important way – they are not active enough on platforms like TikTok. NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer has been looking into this. Hey, Sacha.
SACHA PFEIFFER, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What are Democratic politicians being told they are not doing well?
PFEIFFER: So first, I got interested in this issue because I interviewed a Democratic congressman from New York City named Ritchie Torres. He’s 37 years old. And he says to be a successful politician today, you have to master what he calls the three threes. He means a 30-second vertical video on TikTok or YouTube, a three-minute cable hit and a three-hour podcast interview. He says if you’re not doing that, good luck surviving in politics. Here’s how he put it.
RITCHIE TORRES: I think if you’re either unable or unwilling to adapt to new media, then your extinction is not a question of if, it’s a question of when.
SHAPIRO: How realistic is it for him to call this a career-ending issue for politicians?
PFEIFFER: We know from a recent Reuters Institute study that many Americans now get their news from social media, more than 50%. And even more get news in video form, 75%. So Torres says if politicians aren’t making online videos, they’re not going to be seen by large numbers of potential voters. And he says many Republicans are excelling at this while many Democrats aren’t.
TORRES: The rules of politics are being radically rewritten, and many of my colleagues are struggling to adjust to the new reality.
SHAPIRO: What about Democratic politicians who might just think they’re not good at TikTok and worry that they won’t come across as genuine?
PFEIFFER: Yes, that is a concern, that if you’re bad at social media, could it backfire by turning off voters? I put that question to Martin Riedl of the University of Tennessee. He researches political influencers on social media, and he, first, agrees that politicians cannot ignore this.
MARTIN RIEDL: You have to reach people where they’re at, and if they are not on these platforms and talking to these people, then they’re not going to get elected.
PFEIFFER: But he says as long as politicians are perceived as being themselves, even if they’re corny or quirky or, say, their lighting is bad, that’s OK.
RIEDL: I do understand that people have reservations around putting themselves out there, and it sometimes is cringey. But the risk of not reaching voters is higher than the cringe factor.
PFEIFFER: And Ari, he even says if a politician is awkward on social media, they could embrace that and make it part of their brand.
SHAPIRO: Are there Democrats who the people you’ve talked to cite as examples of how to do it well?
PFEIFFER: Yes, a few Democratic members of Congress have more than a million TikTok followers, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, also Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico of Texas. Another major example, of course, is Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist candidate in the New York City’s mayor’s race. Now, obviously, a big TikTok following does not guarantee political success. For example, there was a July election in Arizona where a Gen Z TikTokker candidate, Deja Foxx, was beaten by 40 points by an opponent twice her age who was much less active on social media, Adelita Grijalva.
But there’s a digital agency called Van Ness Creative Strategies that works to elect Democrats, and it recently said, if you are not comfortable on social media, you should retire. The agency’s co-founder, Sivan Jacobovitz, says last year’s election felt like not just an electoral defeat for Democrats but a cultural defeat because Republicans have found spaces for political influence that Democrats have not.
SIVAN JACOBOVITZ: So they have really effective ways of getting their messages out there, and Democrats do not have that same sort of ecosystem built.
SHAPIRO: OK, so if the premise here is that Democrats are lagging, what does the Republican ecosystem look like?
PFEIFFER: Well, you have Donald Trump and many other Republicans all over conservative media outlets in an unfiltered way, from Fox News to The Daily Wire, and making lengthy appearances on popular podcasts that aren’t officially political but seem more aligned with Republicans, like Joe Rogan’s. And Jacobovitz says that gave Republicans a substantial edge at reaching Americans who avoid politics, so Democrats need to do the same.
SHAPIRO: That’s NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer. Thank you.
PFEIFFER: You’re welcome, Ari.
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