The push to integrate internet personalities into campaign strategy has become a central feature of the 2026 midterm cycle, as both parties try to replicate the digital energy that helped carry Trump to victory in 2024. Political strategists have partially credited Trump’s focus on nontraditional media — sitting for interviews with prominent streamers and podcasters, including Joe Rogan, whose podcast averages nearly 12 million listeners a month — as a reason he made inroads with young voters. But with Trump not on the ballot this fall, campaigns are looking for new ways to sustain that momentum, even as some high-profile efforts have fallen short.
Two recent examples illustrate the difficulty. Democrat Tom Steyer, a progressive billionaire, spent tens of thousands of dollars on paid partnerships with political influencers during his unsuccessful bid for governor of California. Steyer failed to advance to the general election. Spencer Pratt, a Republican running for mayor of Los Angeles, repeatedly went viral in creator-made videos and appeared on Rogan’s podcast but also came up short at the ballot box.
Republican strategist Eric Wilson said the promise of influencer campaigning must be weighed against the realities of smaller electorates. “Social media, content creators, digital media — that whole umbrella — is a blunt force object,” Wilson said, arguing that while the approach may benefit national campaigns and organizations, it can be harder for targeted audiences in state and local races. “Even if someone has millions of followers across the country, when you slice that down to, OK, who’s actually in this state and who’s actually a primary voter, you start to see sometimes the juice isn’t worth the squeeze,” he added. “Now, all things being equal, I’d rather have that person on my side than not.”
Wilson said the strategy brings benefits — including raising money and energizing get-out-the-vote efforts — but comes with a caveat. “The cost benefit analysis is, does the baggage that come with that person outweigh the potential benefits?” he said.
That debate is playing out within the Democratic Party over the streamer Hasan Piker. Known for his leftist politics, Piker has developed a massive online audience — nearly 10 million followers across major platforms — while drawing strong pushback for his fierce anti-war and anti-Israel comments, including saying in a recent interview that he “would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.”
Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, appeared alongside Piker on the campaign trail in April, one of several campaign stops and endorsements Piker has made for progressive and left-leaning candidates this cycle. The move sparked outrage on both sides of the aisle over Piker’s past comments, but El-Sayed defended the decision.
“There have to be on-ramps back to politics,” El-Sayed said. “We cannot be shunning certain media platforms because in effect, we’re shunning the people who pay attention to them.”
El-Sayed said Democratic voters do not raise concerns about the Piker association when he meets them on the stump. “It is a pretty crazy thing that we want to hold people accountable for things that other people have said,” he said. “And I just don’t think normal people think that way.”
El-Sayed added that at campaign events, he gets older attendees who ask how he attracted so many young people, and younger attendees who tell him they saw him on Piker’s stream. His campaign reported that Piker’s involvement led to an initial spike in engagement, including a boost in volunteer sign-ups and an influx of fundraising dollars in the first few days after the events were announced. Michigan’s primary is set for August 4.
Since his appearance with El-Sayed, Piker has continued to voice support for other Democrats, several of whom won their primary contests — including Adam Hamawy in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania’s 3rd district. But Piker’s record is mixed. In California, where he lives, he hosted Steyer for a lengthy interview on his livestream; Steyer came in a distant third. Saikat Chakrabarti, Piker’s preferred candidate in the race to fill the San Francisco-area congressional seat vacated by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also lost.
Piker described his audience as overwhelmingly Democratic, and roughly 60% white men between the ages of 18 and 35 — “right in the pocket of that demographic that the Democratic Party has lost significant support in,” he said in an interview. “To my audience, the message is simple. I’m telling them, I trust this person. I like this person, and I think this person is worth supporting. This is a person that you don’t have to just reluctantly vote for.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are building their own network of MAGA influencers. In 2024, Trump repeatedly appeared alongside figures like Charlie Kirk, the late founder of the young-voter group Turning Point USA, which has cultivated a cohort of popular political influencers who continue to post in support of Trump’s agenda and GOP candidates.
Some Democratic strategists and content creators argue that a digital-focused operation can go only so far without a strong message. Cheyenne Hunt, the former executive director of Gen-Z for Change, a progressive group that collaborates regularly with creators, said much of the party’s investment is going to influencers who are already on message. “My observation is that most of the money is going to the creators who are all speaking in the same echo chamber of folks whose support we already had, and it’s not going to change hearts and minds,” she said.
Content creator Sriha Srinivasan, who has more than 180,000 followers talking about sexual education on TikTok, pointed to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s successful campaign. Mamdani had a strong digital presence, but Srinivasan said that was not what drove his victory. “Mamdani won only in part because of [his] social media. He won primarily, in my opinion, because he addressed the cost of living crisis. That’s what drew people in,” she said. “I think that sometimes Democrats can skirt around the point, which is that, yes, the social media is good and we need that. But that means nothing if you are not actually addressing the issues that are affecting real Americans today.”