Last night, talk show icon Oprah Winfrey received roaring applause at her first-ever appearance at a national political convention. The day before, Sean Astin took the stage to call for the first woman president in United States history, managing to reference his roles in both Stranger Things and Rudy. And Lil Jon turned roll call into a dance party, adapting Get Low’s PG-13 lyrics to celebrate the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Standing in front of the smiling delegates from Georgia, Lil Jon led the crowd in a chant: “VP Harris to the Walz.”
The last several days of the Democratic convention have been a glitzier echo of last month’s Republican National Convention, which saw Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan, and UFC CEO Dana White show up to bolster their preferred party. While the star power is enough to get the DNC party into headlines, celebrities’ ability to sway voters is much less certain.
As young people’s attentions shift away from the silver screen to their phone screens, celebrity presence is still important, but more and more, it’s window dressing — something the convention’s organizers seem to be aware of.
The Democratic Party has been strategic about the whirlwind of talent asking to be involved in the convention. Both Democrats and Republicans have opted for a different strategy to try and sway opinion: a slate of internet-based superstars who are more relevant to young voters and less risky to established politicians.
More than 200 social media influencers and content creators were given credentialed access to the DNC and got face time with some of the highest-ranking speakers there. This includes Twitch celebrity Hasan Piker interviewing Sen. Ed Markey in his livestream and 13-year-old Knowa De Baraso accosting fellow political influencer Charlie Kirk in a now-viral clip.
Chicago-based content creator Joshua Joseph says overall, the strategy of working with influencers has far more likelihood of enticing young voters. “Even though you might not have the name recognition of, like, a George Clooney, the amount of people that you can reach through making TikToks [or] making Instagram videos has become so much bigger than at any point in the past.”
It’s a strategy the Democratic Party has been slow to pick up on, says Joseph. Even some Democrats agree. “I think that you are the future, and the rest of the world is going to realize it in 20 more years, and it will be too late,” Markey said in his interview with Piker.
While celebrity has an undeniable influence on society, it’s hard to translate that to politics, says Mark Harvey, author of Celebrity Influence: Politics, Persuasion and Issue-Based Advocacy. He says celebrities have been endorsing products since the 1920s. But for those endorsements to work, the celebrity’s image needs to already match the brand, they must be generally trustworthy, and they must have a certain credibility in that field.
Both Democrats and Republicans have turned to lower-risk and higher-reward social media stars to appeal to young voters. This summer, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has appeared in a video with streaming star Adin Ross and Canadian xQc and given interviews to both YouTuber Logan Paul and podcast host Theo Von.
There are risks to this strategy. MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones wrote that Trump’s social media endorsements only highlighted the lack of credible voices lending their support, while Adin Ross was criticized by Piker for potentially violating FEC regulations when he gifted Trump a Rolex on his stream.
Dara Tucker, another content creator attending the DNC, argues the balance of reach, influence, and trustworthiness is different for people like her compared to traditional celebrities. “There’s a reason that I’m being included, and it doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with how exciting it is to see me out in the crowd, in the same way that I was really excited at seeing Spike Lee here,” she said.
By offering space to those creators, Tucker said, politicians can have their cake and eat it, too: recognizable names for younger audiences who won’t feel alienated or manipulated by political endorsements. “People come to rely on the content that we put out there. They come to rely on our opinions, our perspective, our point of view, our voices,” she said. “So for the Democratic National Convention, for the Republican National Convention, to be utilizing creators like me, I think is a really, really smart move.”
