Influencers get access to political conventions as campaigns court young voters

(CHICAGO) — As the Democratic National Convention made history with Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to accept the Democratic nomination for president, the most viral moments in a week of “firsts” were captured by social media content creators who received first-of-its-kind credentialed access to the convention.

The presidential race closes in with less than three months until the election, and the key to the Oval Office might just come down to winning over the youngest generation of voters, whose coming of age has changed the landscape of the election.

One-third of adults under the age of 30 regularly scroll social media apps, like TikTok, for news, up 255% since 2020, according to Pew Research.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement and Learning revealed that young voters are consuming and producing political news more than ever, with 70% of young people revealing they got information about the 2020 election on social media.

It’s part of why both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns are getting creative and investing in their social media strategy to influence Gen Z voters.

Both parties invited hundreds of creators to their prospective conventions to help draw eyeballs to their platforms and presidential candidates.

Roughly 70 content creators were invited to participate in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last month, according to the RNC officials.

The DNC said around 200 social media influencers were credentialed for the convention, giving them exclusive access to invite-only parties and events as well as opportunities to meet and interview delegates.

They were also given access to an exclusive “creator’s lounge” that was separate from traditional media spaces in the United Center arena. Influencers took turns recording content from a designated seating area on the arena floor close to the stage.

“There are influencers that are way more powerful than the TV networks, way more powerful than the New York Times or the Washington Post, and way more important if you’re trying to reach actual voters,” said ABC News Washington Bureau and Political Director Rick Klein in an interview with “Nightline.”

“If you can get the youth vote to engage just a little bit more, the thinking is, well, that can just change the election,” Klein said.

The battle for the youth vote

From former President Donald Trump’s return to X in an interview with Elon Musk to the vice president’s viral memes at the kickoff of her presidential campaign, the presidential hopefuls are battling to engage young voters.

So far, Harris seems to have the edge — the vice president leads Trump by 20 points among 18-39-year-olds, according to a recent ABC News/ Washington Post Ipsos poll.

In terms of followers, Trump beats Harris with his 10.5 million followers compared to her 4.6 million on TikTok.

“I constantly joke with President Trump when we’re backstage at events that he was the ultimate influencer. He was the original kind of the OG influencer,” Brilyn Hollyhand, an 18-year-old social media influencer, told “Nightline.”

Hollyhand was among the content creators credentialed for the Republican National Convention. The high school senior was the convention’s youth advisory chair, and he said it was his idea to give young social creators credentialed access to the RNC.

“My message to the RNC after the 2022 Midterms was that the Republican Party is an endangered species at risk of extinction. I went into this meeting thinking that it would be a really hard sell. And they immediately went for it,” Hollyhand said.

Hollyhand told ABC News that he believes anecdotally that it was a success.

“I came back to school the next week, half of my peers who didn’t even know a convention was going on, now, because their favorite fitness influencer posted a video or their favorite video game streamer posted a TikTok from the event … they found out a convention was going on and they enjoyed it,” Hollyhand added.

While young voters tend to sway more Democratic, Klein told “Nightline,” that the bigger variable is voter turn-out.

“The biggest question is not really how they vote, but how many of them vote. And that’s where the enthusiasm that can be engendered by authentic communication through influencers can make a difference,” Klein said.

In Chicago this week, Malynda Hale, an actress and social media influencer with more than 90,000 followers, was among the 200 influencers at the DNC.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Hale told ABC News’ multiplatform reporter Christiane Cordero on “GMA3.” “When I found out it was going to be Kamala Harris, I was like, this is going to be historical.”

Hale posted daily updates and interviews with delegates as she participated in DNC convention events.

“I gained a couple hundred, just like just yesterday just from doing this stuff. And since the hashtag #democraticconvention, I think everyone’s kind of watching it right now, ” Hale said.

Many credential influencers say they aren’t being paid by the Democratic National Convention or the campaign, but some of their trips are funded by agencies and nonprofits that align with their content.

Elizabeth Booker Houston, a social justice influencer with more than half a million followers, says being funded independently allows her to stay authentic on her platform.

“I participated in a protest for Palestine at Michigan Avenue on Sunday when I was here. I don’t at all feel like I’m silenced in speaking about those issues just because I’m here at the DNC,” Houston said.

Some influencers who attend the DNC are using their platforms to promote presidential candidates that align with their platform.

Deja Foxx, an abortion rights activist, was one of the first influencers to take the stage at the DNC convention.

“We need Kamala Harris. She’ll deliver a future where we can decide if and when to start a family,” Deja said on the convention stage on August 19.

The Arizona native went viral in 2017 for confronting Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., over his support of defunding reproductive health and family planning programs.

“Why is it your right to take away my right to choose Planned Parenthood?” Foxx asked Flake. The moment was shared on Facebook by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona and millions of people liked shared the video in solidarity.

Foxx said she started creating reproductive rights content on her social media accounts. In 2019, while she was a student at Columbia University, she got a call from the Harris campaign during the now-vice president’s first presidential run.

“Within two weeks, I was packing up that dorm room and starting a job as an influencer and surrogate strategist out of headquarters, a job that, mind you, did not exist before I got there,” Foxx told ABC News.

Fast forward to this year, the Harris campaign invited Foxx to speak at the DNC as a credentialed creator. Foxx said she has not been affiliated with the campaign directly since her role in 2019. She notes she was not paid directly by a PAC or the Harris campaign for her attendance at the DNC; however, footage that was shot at the convention event will be used in paid partnership and will be labeled accordingly.

“To be here today, to be a small part of history, is a dream realized,” Foxx said, adding that she is mindful that her peers may be using her content to shape their political views.

“They are building a political identity in their teens and early 20s, that is going to follow them, follow our generation for a lifetime. I think it’s a really smart investment to think about how we are helping them build that perspective, that opinion early and meeting them on the platforms where they already are,” Foxx said.

ABC News’ Marjorie McAfee, Zoe Chevalier and Elizabeth Pekin contributed to this report.