Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign livestreamed Governor Tim Walz’s Arizona rally on Twitch, with a streamer providing commentary while playing World of Warcraft. The gaming broadcast was a desperate attempt to connect with young male voters.
The New York Times reports that the Harris campaign and the Democrat part are exploring new avenues to engage with young male voters in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign took an unconventional approach by livestreaming Governor Tim Walz’s rally in Tucson, Arizona, via the popular gaming platform Twitch. The stream featured a split-screen view, with the rally on the left and gameplay from the role-playing game World of Warcraft on the right.
Preheat, a Twitch streamer with approximately 50,000 followers, hosted the stream from the Harris campaign’s account, which was created in August. Throughout the livestream, Preheat encouraged viewers to vote for Harris while providing commentary on both the game and the election. At one point, he criticized Project 2025, a conservative playbook often targeted by Democrats, and later mused about his character’s health during Walz’s speech.
This approach to campaigning comes as the Republican Party has been making inroads with young male voters. The Harris campaign’s decision to livestream gameplay marks their first attempt to utilize Twitch in this manner, attracting roughly 5,000 viewers. The campaign has also employed similar tactics on other platforms, such as posting a TikTok video featuring gameplay from the mobile game Subway Surfers alongside a clip of former President Donald Trump discussing the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Trump’s campaign has also sought out non-traditional media platforms to connect with voters. In August, he participated in a livestreamed interview with Adin Ross, a popular streamer on the Kick platform. The event, which took place at Mar-a-Lago, drew more than 500,000 viewers and included Ross presenting Trump with a Rolex watch and a customized Tesla Cybertruck.
The use of livestreaming platforms by politicians is a relatively recent phenomenon. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has her own Twitch account and has streamed gameplay of Among Us to hundreds of thousands of viewers while encouraging them to vote. During the 2020 presidential campaign, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump utilized Twitch to livestream campaign events, although Trump’s account was later banned.
Read more at the New York Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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