Republicans Built an Ecosystem of Influencers. Some Democrats Want One, Too.
The New York Times
Democrats were badly outflanked online in the election, and progressive influencers are now trying to create networks to be a left-wing answer to Turning Point USA.
Zackory Kirk, an influencer based in Atlanta who goes by the name The Zactivist and has more than 220,000 followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, has been churning out mostly progressive content for more than four years.
It was only in the final stretch of the 2024 election that any real paid opportunities for him emerged from Democrats seeking to boost support for Vice President Kamala Harris, down-ballot candidates and issues such as reproductive justice. Nearly all the money Mr. Kirk made — and it wasn’t that much, he added — came in the nine weeks between Labor Day and Election Day.
“Up until the end, everything was pretty much free work,” he said.
And since Ms. Harris lost?
“Nothing.”
Now Democrats are facing a reckoning, not just over Ms. Harris’s loss to President-elect Donald J. Trump but also over how the left got so badly outflanked online. The sponsorship spigot that many influencers say was turned on too late is now running dry. And the content creators who embraced Ms. Harris fear falling even farther behind their Republican rivals, one viral TikTok at a time.
