The move reflects the Democratic Party’s broader strategy to leverage relationships with social media influencers to expand their reach and boost turnout, particularly among key constituencies like young voters, who may not follow traditional news media.
Young voters ages 18 to 29 were key to Biden’s win in 2020, backing him over Trump by a 25-point margin, and they are increasingly getting their information about politics from social media — around a third of adults ages 18 to 29 say they regularly get news on TikTok, according to Pew Research Center. (Both the Biden campaign and former president Donald Trump have joined the platform in recent months.)
Cayana Mackey-Nance, the convention’s director of digital strategy, framed the plan as “leveling the playing field between content creators and traditional media, and ensuring that more Americans than ever before are able to experience and engage with this critical part of our Democratic process.”
“Creators have revolutionized the way Americans consume information and content, and their innovations will continue to play a critical role in how the American people view not only this election cycle, but every election cycle moving forward,” she added in a statement.
“We are meeting Americans where they are and making sure they know what’s on the line in November, no matter how or where they see their content,” said Matt Hill, the convention committee’s senior director of communications.
For those who cannot attend in person, the committee plans to distribute content to help creators post about the event, and it is in talks with streaming providers about distributing long- and short-form content during the week of the convention.
The convention committee says it will not censor the influencers’ content or revoke access for critical coverage.
“Just like how we respect the freedom of the press to cover our convention, we respect the freedom of creators to produce their own content,” a DNCC spokesperson said, stressing that the intent is “that more people can look behind the scenes at this piece of the Democratic process and see the story of our party and our president.”
They compared the influencer outreach to efforts to incorporate bloggers and newer media outlets at past conventions. In 2020, the coronavirus-era virtual convention was broadcast on both TV and streaming services such as Twitch.
This spring, the convention committee hosted influencers at a media walkthrough, providing the same logistical and technical briefings given to traditional media and a special dedicated tour and briefing geared toward content creators. At United Center, the credentialed creators will be able to access work and lounge spaces, including the penthouse, lower bowl, media row and Studio24, the convention’s in-house studios.
The committee is also launching a Chicago-specific influencer program to showcase creators local to the host city.
Samantha Lampkin, a Chicago-based journalist and content creator who attended the spring media walkthrough, said the convention committee said she can cover the convention as both a journalist and in the creator spaces.
“The DNC is very traditional, so bringing content creators in can add that new air of innovation,” said Lampkin, adding that “the average person isn’t going to the DNC … but they still want to see.”
Influencers who attended the walkthrough asked committee staff if their credentials would be pulled if they posted content from the convention that is critical of Biden.
“One of the main things that was said was that folks won’t have their access revoked based off of solely the content you create,” said Shermann “Dilla” Thomas, a Chicago historian and creator with more than 111,000 followers on TikTok and more than 84,000 followers on Instagram. “If you’re just being critical of something that you heard in a speech or that you heard during conversations or interviews, then you still would have that same access the next day. And I thought that was pretty admirable.”
Thomas has taken the DNC host committee and state Democratic Party chairs on tours of Chicago, and he will be leading more tours during the convention, while also attending as a creator.
“I want to be covering how they interact with people from BIPOC spaces,” Thomas said, referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color. “I’m very much interested in knowing how much money the DNC is spending in Black and Brown communities, since they will be courting the Black and Brown vote very hard come November, as well as the Asian American vote.”
“Most of us content creators are middle-aged or younger, and so we’re going to be the ones that inherit the benefits and the problems caused by politicians,” Thomas added. “So why shouldn’t we be on the ground floor to kind of address it?”
