By Matthew Becerra, September 16, 2025
Students aren’t just getting their political ideas from the news anymore.
They’re getting it online mixed with videos about trends, dances and memes. Influencers and algorithms have become the new gateway to political messaging and both parties have started to notice.
This is backed by data from a study by Pew Research Center which found that over half of Americans get news through social media, and platforms like TikTok has seen a 30% rise in people getting news on the app.
Some of the content being shown is typical news coverage on events but a portion of it is from influencers like Charlie Kirk and Nick Fuentes whose rhetoric has been described as racist and white supremacist.
With this rhetoric and style of content comes a sense of danger for both the consumers and the creators. Kirk, who was on a tour debating college students on their campuses, was murdered Sept. 10.
Biology student Alice Roman said political content appears on her feed even when she doesn’t seek it out, but it’s not the traditional news outlets spreading the information.
“I see it pretty often,” Roman said. “It’s influencers talking about stuff that’s going on.”
Roman’s description of her feed was influencers talking about topics like immigration but said it felt like certain creators only talked about politics when it benefited them and said creators should only speak on topics when it “really comes from their heart.”
Mechanical engineering student Yahel Castro shared a similar experience saying he sees a minimum of one political video per day on TikTok and Instagram from influencers. The political content that pops up on his for you page is a balance between trying to inform and competing for clicks, he said.
“It’s to spread news, but there’s a sort of element where it has to be entertainment,” Castro said.
Castro shared his experience with content like Jubilee’s debate videos where he questioned if the debates were authentic or just meant to get more clicks.
“I feel like it was kind of staged,” Castro said. “Those videos are usually amped up to get more views.”
Both students also shared how quickly their feed can put them into an echo chamber of political messaging based on videos they interacted with in the past. Castro said he couldn’t escape political content on multiple platforms during the last presidential election.
“It was a bunch of those debate videos, always left versus right, and it kept popping up,” Castro said. “I never searched for it.”
Cal Poly Pomona philosophy professor Alex Madva explained what these students are experiencing is not an accident, but how campaigns are trying to reach younger voters.
“We’re operating in a system where lots of people get their information from influencers,” Madva said. “I think it makes all the sense in the world for people who are trying to accomplish things politically to try to get that message out through influencers.”
With this comes the different approaches political parties take in their attempt to capture the younger demographic through social media.
Madva explained the right has an advantage online with Republican influencers gaining followers by positioning themselves as independent voices or “speaking truth to power.”
For instance, podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, which often features politicians including President Donald Trump in October 2024, as well the rise of right-wing influencers like Kirk have given Conservatives a strong base online, particularly with young men.
The Pew study found that 63% of the influencers are men and are more likely to lean conservative with 27% identifying themselves as Republican.
“The Trump campaign specifically was able to get a lot of messaging through social media,” said political science professor Neilan Chaturvedi. “And of course, we all know about the podcasters who came out very heavily and publicly in favor of his campaign, that I think had an impact on young people.”
According to Chaturvedi, all this has left the Democratic Party playing catchup.
“It’s clear that the takeaway that the Democratic Party has is that they failed to do (engage with young people online),” Chaturvedi said. “They have to figure out how to get young people back in the party. Any tactic should be on the table for them to get back in power. … Strategically, I think it makes sense to do an all-hands-on-deck approach in terms of media.”
The Democratic Party has started to take different approaches with politicians like Governor Gavin Newsom starting his own podcast, but data suggests they still aren’t doing enough.
While spending more money The Democratic Parties issue seems to be strategy, they aren’t engaging enough with online audiences year-round and don’t take full advantage of the differences between online media and traditional media according to Tech for Campaigns.
A WIRED investigation on Aug. 27 revealed democratic-aligned dark money groups were secretly funding influencers up to $8,000 a month to restrict and push political content without disclosing it to their fanbases.
“Trying to just pay off influencers is a shortcut,” Madva said. “What the Democratic Party actually needs is influencers who are already Democrats. It needs to be coming from an intrinsic place.”
Chaturvedi said the laws that have been passed to make political advertising more transparent, like requiring candidates to state “I approve this message” in TV ads are good. But paying influencers is a step backward and raises ethical concerns of transparency in politics, he said.
Madva and Chaturvedi both agreed the party needs to take notes from people like New York representative Zohran Mamdani who understands how to make a viral campaign and seems to be one of the first post-2024 election to reach an audience through social media.
Mamdani not only built his own online following to over 6 million followers across platforms through his own viral videos but has appeared in both viral short form and long form content online. He appeared multiple times on the popular TikTok series “Subway Takes” where he would speak about his policies while also joking about topics like overpriced matcha. These videos gained over 1 million likes combined.
Feature graphic courtesy of Connor Lālea Hampton
