How the Trump and Harris campaigns are trying to reach voters via nontraditional media outlets

The 2024 presidential election has seen a change in how candidates engage with the media, as they try to reach younger voters through nontraditional outlets.
After declining to participate in a “60 Minutes” interview, a tradition for major party presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump was recently featured on an episode of the “Flagrant” podcast, hosted by comedian Andrew Schulz; Republican vice presidential candidate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who has “sat down with liberal podcast hosts and conservative commentators alike,” per Politico, also appeared in August on a podcast hosted by the “Nelk Boys,” Canadian-American conservative YouTube celebrities.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently appeared on both The Howard Stern Show and the “Call Her Daddy” podcast; her running mate, Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz, appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for a late-night interview; The Minnesota governor was also recently featured in a “Gov. Walz Game Day” on Twitch, a live-streaming service mainly geared toward video game players and streamers.
The Harris Campaign launched its Twitch account in August, according to Wired, where it streamed Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. On Wednesday night, the Harris campaign’s Twitch account streamed the Walz game day event, which consisted of a split-screen stream featuring Walz’s Arizona rally and live gameplay from “Preheat,” a Twitch streamer with over 50,000 followers.
On one side of the screen, Preheat played the popular multiplayer online game “World of Warcraft” while he provided commentary on Walz’s rally remarks and encouraged viewers to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket.
“Our job as the campaign is to break through a historically personalized media landscape, taking the VP and her vision for the future directly to the hardest-to-reach voters and those who will decide this election,” Seth Schuster, a Harris spokesperson, told Wired of the campaign’s decision to create a Twitch account earlier this year.
“The Republican Party has made inroads with young men, and this stream was an attempt by the Harris campaign to court voters to the Democratic ticket,” The New York Times reported. Per the Times, the Walz game day marks the first time the Harris campaign live-streamed gameplay from their Twitch account, and over 5,000 viewers tuned in.
This wasn’t the first time a presidential campaign has crossed over with a livestreaming platform, though, as both President Joe Biden and Trump utilized Twitch to stream presidential campaign events in 2020.
Earlier this year, Trump held a live interview at Mar-a-Lago with Adin Ross, a controversial conservative internet personality. Back in August, Trump and Ross’ interview streamed on the platform Kick — Ross was banned from Twitch, though Trump’s ban was lifted earlier this year — and “featured Ross asking Trump questions about current events and world leaders, similar to Trump’s podcast interview with YouTuber Logan Paul,” NBC News reported.
Both campaigns also have a large presence on TikTok, with millions of followers under each of their respective belts. Roughly a third of U.S. adults, including a majority of adults under the age of 30, use TikTok, according to Pew Research Center. On top of that, about half of TikTok’s users under 30 say they use it to keep up with politics and news, per another Pew survey.