Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump utilized social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and other various media outlets to reach voting demographics they predicted would help boost their vote, specifically Black men and conservative white voters.
In an Instagram post published on Oct. 14, Harris outlined an “Opportunity Agenda” for Black men offering solutions to issues directly affecting them. Topics such as entrepreneurial support, the criminal justice system and healthcare ranked as top concerns for Black men when deciding on who to pick as their candidate.
Harris also spoke about the agenda on The Shade Room, a 24/7 Black-owned news outlet that combines investigative, entertainment and crowdsourced journalism to share with over 29 million followers on Instagram.
Conversely, former President Donald Trump closed in on his supporter base by appearing on primarily conservative or white outlets.
On Oct. 15 Trump gave an interview with Joe Rogan, a podcaster who has a history of making insensitive remarks towards marginalized communities like Jewish and trans people and he later went on to endorse the candidate. Trump also appeared on Kick, a 71.5 percent male livestreaming platform, with internet personality Adin Ross.
Black men were a focal point of the media the election cycle with debates over what candidate the voting bloc would support. According to the NAACP their likelihood to vote for Trump decreased from 27 to 21 percent. However, this statistic is still higher than in 2020 when only 10 percent of Black men were reported to have voted for Trump.
In Georgia, Black men make up 47 percent of Black eligible voters and account for 2.6 million people, which made them an influential voting bloc.
According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2023, 48 percent of Black Gen-Z are most engaged with short-form content on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok and are the second-highest age group, accounting for 25 percent of eligible voters.
Jasmine Harris, the director of Black Media for Harris’ campaign, shared their strategy on how they reached these demographics.
“She’s making sure she’s doing all the touches on Roland Martin, Fox News, Club Shay Shay, The Shade Room places that her opponent cannot,” she said. “She is hitting every outlet she can to reinforce to Black Americans how important this election is. We are being creative in the mediums we are utilizing to talk to voters,” Harris said.
On Instagram and Snapchat, Harris’s team released an advertisement that mimicked the ‘Pop the Balloon‘ challenge—a dating game in which contestants pop balloons if they don’t like someone— to express their dissatisfaction with a Black man who failed to vote. She also used the viral sound by TV personality Tiffany Pollard, “Do you know you have 30 minutes,” on TikTok that was meant to communicate urgency to Gen Z voters.
Kamala HQ, the campaign’s social media page, accumulated 5.6 million followers on TikTok and 1.2 million on Instagram, and Donald Trump has 28.8 million Instagram followers and 14 million TikTok supporters.
Larnelle Ankunda, a junior computer science major, felt the pressure as a Black male voter.
“Being a Black man during this election has been kind of difficult because everyone has been telling us that we don’t vote or that our vote doesn’t matter. On Twitter I have been seeing a lot of lies and Trump promotions so it’s been an interesting election,” Ankunda said.
Twitter and its owner, Elon Musk, openly supported President Trump. Musk promoted The America Pac, his super PAC which donated $130 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign as of Nov 7. On Election Day Twitter featured a graphic with a Trump animation and #VotedforTrump on it.
Harris also appeared on podcasts hosted by Black men. She appeared on Club Shay Shay, with former NFL player Shannon Sharpe, and All The Smoke, hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“When I watched her interview on Club Shay Shay and All The Smoke it reassured me as a Black man that she sees us and wants us to believe in her,” Ankunda said. “I think it was cool that she went to platforms that I watch to speak to people like me.”
For some, social media had no bearing on their preferred candidate with 22 percent of Gen Z getting their information from national news outlets instead. Camryn Curtis, a senior health sciences major, is among this demographic.
“I’m not currently active on social media, but I still want to be informed on the election so I will go to CNN or AP News to stay up to date. My friends will also send me videos and posts from Instagram or TikTok to keep me in the loop,” Curtis said.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
