Priorities USA, a Democrat-aligned SuperPAC supporting Joe Biden’s presidential re-election campaign, is dropping $1 million on social media influencers to increase the 81-year-old President’s standing among youth voters. The SuperPAC is pushing content creators and influencers to post on Instagram and the Chinese-owned TikTok app to shore up support among Zoomer and younger Millennial voters. Recent polling shows the Biden campaign has seen a collapse of support among the 18 to 34 age demographic.
Social media influencers whose usual content has focused on everything from skincare routines to cooking demonstrations to luxury travel have begun adding new, more political content. Priorities USA is paying these influencers to encourage thousands of followers to register to vote and support progressive candidates. The Democrat SuperPAC has pledged $1 million to the effort and claims they’ve recruited 150 social media influencers to push pro-Biden messaging.
Young voters in critical swing states have increasingly soured on Biden’s candidacy. Concerns over the octogenarian Democrat’s age, mental competence, and his government’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza have caused an erosion in support among the critical Democrat youth demographic. In 2022, other Democrat SuperPACs used paid social media influencers to push the youth vote with mixed results.
Additionally, the Biden campaign’s embrace of TikTok raises national security questions. Many state and local governments have banned using TikTok on work computers and smartphones. National security officials have warned the app has potential intelligence-gathering uses for the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, spent over $7 million in 2023 to influence U.S. lawmakers to oppose efforts to ban the app entirely.
“We look forward to working with TikTok throughout the cycle,” Jack Doyle, a spokesman for Priorities USA said when asked about the SuperPAC’s influencer campaign.
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