Unlimited food and drinks, VIP access and speaking time on the podium: at the Democratic convention in Chicago, influencers are being treated as special guests by Kamala Harris’ campaign team, which is looking to expand its electorate.
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The Chicago Bulls arena, transformed into Democratic headquarters to celebrate the inauguration of Kamala Harris as the party’s candidate for the November presidential election in the United States on Thursday, is teeming with social media stars.
“The room we’re in is one of the most powerful,” Benjamin Zamora, a journalist who left traditional media for social media, where he has 6.3 million followers, told AFP about one of the places reserved for influencers – with unlimited soda, wine, hot dogs and hamburgers.
“Many of these content creators have a larger audience than CNN, the New York Times” or many television channels, he adds.
The difference in treatment with journalists – who occupy more traditional press rooms, without a buffet, outside the arena and with limited access to certain places – seems logical to him: “The convention considers content creators as allies and the press is not part of it.”
Photo AFP
More than 200 influencers have been accredited, a first that contrasts with the fact that the Democratic candidate has yet to give an interview or press conference since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race for the White House.
“Bringing together content creators will allow us to amplify the effect” of the convention, Cayana Mackey-Nance, the campaign’s digital strategy director, acknowledged before the event.
On a huge screen in the aisles of the convention, the organizers broadcast messages published on social networks, but the influencers have also obtained a place of choice at the microphone, on the main stage.
50,000 subscribers at 12 years old
At least five of them paraded on the podium over the four days, including Uruguayan Carlos Eduardo Espina.
“It’s really incredible that they gave us this opportunity,” he told AFP.
“We saw Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and it’s like… wow. We think we don’t deserve to be in the same room as them… but actually we do!” adds this 25-year-old influencer with 11 million subscribers.
In the arena, they move around more freely than most journalists, telephone and microphone in hand, and have a reserved space, against a blue background, to conduct their interviews.
Their work differs from that of the traditional press, explains Knowa, more than 50,000 subscribers on X, his favorite social network, at only 12 years old.
In a video that went viral, he is seen speaking at the convention with Mike Lindell, an entrepreneur who is a fan of conspiracy theories. Faced with the Republican who is ranting against the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, a state narrowly won by Joe Biden, which Donald Trump and his supporters dispute, the young man asks him several times to cite his sources.
“So your only source is to tell me, ‘Believe me, brother?'” he asks with disarming aplomb.
Photo AFP
“The whole lot”
At the convention, he was accompanied by his communications team, “only three people,” and was able to sit next to Senator Bernie Sanders or former House Representative Stacey Abrams.
An almost banal event for someone who has already met Vice President Kamala Harris five times and was invited to the White House before he even had the right to vote.
His dedication to the candidate is total and it is in fact the only leisure activity that this student who is taking distance learning courses allows himself: “The first thing I do when I wake up is to search for Kamala Harris on Google.”
Other creators, less focused on politics, have adapted their content to the convention.
Blair Imani Ali, who posts short, educational videos on a variety of topics to her 642,000 Instagram followers, questioned Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The organizers “have been so welcoming,” the influencer rejoices. “I know some are even staying in hotels, because many are independent creators (…) They really have planned everything.”
In her latest video, she also mocks journalists who complained about having less access to the arena than influencers.
