Influencer In electoral politics, influencers are more important than ever. They are trendsetters, meme sharers, video creators, organizers, and they are also powerful in encouraging their followers to vote. That’s why we’ve created a visual and interactive list of influencers and content creators from the right and left, where you can compare their follower numbers and see their connection to this election.
The list we’ve put together here will likely include some creators you know and some you may not. Since the 2020 election, the internet has become more fragmented and personalized with social media algorithms creating a customized feed for each user. We’ve put together this list to showcase some of the biggest names in politics in the internet community.
The size of each creator’s bubble corresponds to the number of followers they have on their primary social media platform, even though many creators boast huge audiences across multiple other social media platforms.
The creators we selected for this project are just a small sample of the most influential people putting out political content on the internet. They include everyone from micro-influencers to billionaires like Elon Musk. Creators must meet several criteria, including whether they primarily post about politics or have worked directly with political campaigns or political action committees. If they don’t have a large audience, they should at least be influential in a particular community, such as immigrants or people with disabilities. They should also demonstrate that their content is influential by driving the news cycle or inspiring political change. On the right side, this includes many meme creators and talk radio type influencers.
During the 2024 election, influencers, content creators, and podcasters have been invited to lavish political fundraisers, party conventions, and rallies, giving millions of followers online a glimpse onstage and behind the scenes. This is very different from how political parties traditionally sell famous or infamous figures to the masses, but influencers can respond in real time. At least one in four creators have been approached by political campaigns or political groups to create political content ahead of the 2024 election, according to a recent survey by global creative agency Billion Dollar Boy. This is the first year that the Democratic National Convention has qualified influencers with journalists.
Influencers have similarly opened up their audiences to the candidates: Trump appeared on numerous creator-led podcasts, and the Harris campaign’s embrace of “Brat Summer” and the influencers who promoted it became a defining moment of the race. Some of the biggest influencers on the right are billionaires like Musk and mainstream right-wing media figures like Charlie Kirk, which is probably why they have significantly larger followings than younger creators on the left.
Political influencers aren’t going anywhere, but it remains to be seen how much their supporters will be able to influence the election. They’ve already changed how we experience politics online; now we’ll see if they can actually encourage voters to go to the polls.
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