Former President Barack Obama is partnering with TikTok influencer Carlos Espina to reach millions of potential young voters on National Voter Registration Day.
As part of a comprehensive Democratic initiative to engage approximately 30 million prospective voters through non-traditional channels on National Voter Registration Day, former President Barack Obama is collaborating with 25-year-old TikTok influencer and non-profit director Carlos Espina.
Espina, who boasts an impressive 10.5 million followers on the Chinese-owned platform, has recently collaborated with President Biden and Vice President Harris on the app. Capitalizing on the Democratic advantage among young Americans under 30, Obama aims to motivate TikTok viewers to visit IWillVote.com, register, and establish an Election Day plan.
Obama Teams Up with TikTok Influencer to Encourage Voter Registration
The Harris-Walz campaign also intends to engage young Americans through voter registration initiatives online and on campuses in key battleground states. Obama has been previously solicited by the Biden and Harris campaigns to generate funds from affluent donors and small-donor party activists. The Harris campaign utilized a clip from Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, featuring a suggestive hand gesture while discussing former President Trump's "crowd sizes," in a recent campaign video.
This voter registration initiative follows a federal court hearing in Washington, D.C., where TikTok attorneys challenged the law that could result in the platform's ban within months, arguing its unconstitutionality. The Justice Department, however, maintained that the app posed a national security risk in the hands of its China-based parent company ByteDance.
Obama Teams Up with TikTok Influencer to Encourage Voter Registration
In April, President Biden signed the measure, capping years of debate in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the U.S. government has accused of amassing extensive user data, including sensitive viewing habits, potentially accessible to the Chinese government.
Officials have further cautioned that the proprietary algorithm that curates content on the app could be exploited by Chinese authorities, allowing them to shape content in a manner that would be challenging to detect.
Obama Teams Up with TikTok Influencer to Encourage Voter Registration
Trump, who first raised concerns about the national security implications of TikTok in 2020, warned allies that an outright ban at this time would favor Meta-owned Facebook, which he has accused of interfering in his 2020 re-election bid.
The Biden campaign became active on TikTok in February with a Superbowl-themed video. After Biden halted his re-election campaign in July, Harris took to TikTok, declaring, "Thought I would get on here myself."
Obama Teams Up with TikTok Influencer to Encourage Voter Registration
In June, Trump joined TikTok with a video featuring him waving to supporters at an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight in Newark, New Jersey. UFC CEO Dana White announced, "the president is now on TikTok," to which Trump responded, "It's my honor," as Kid Rock's song "American Bad A--" played.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
