The rebranded account, Headquarters, inherits Harris's massive follower count: 1.1 million followers on the social platform X and 5.5 million on TikTok.
Both are overshadowed by President Trump's 110 million X followers and 16.1 million TikTok followers.
"Democrats continue to struggle with reaching people online, and really are struggling with grasping the attention economy," Lauren Kapp, one of the figures behind Headquarters and the managing partner at Luminary Strategies, told The Hill.
"Republicans know how to do it, and Democrats are extremely risk-averse, and we need to change that," she added. "We haven't seen enough change since 2024."
Kapp said the team hopes to help solve the "Democratic digital crisis" by building an ecosystem to match the conservative podcasts and social media accounts that helped Trump connect with Gen Z voters (especially young men) and soundly defeat Harris.
While Harris won the 18-24 age demographic by 10 points, that was a steep drop from former President Biden's 29-point margin over Trump in 2020.
The gender gap was huge: Young women supported Harris by a 17-point margin, while young men backed Trump by a 14-point margin.
As Harris's account pivots heading into the midterms, the former vice president will be the "chair emerita" of the online project.
In an announcement last week, she said Headquarters will be a place "where you can go online to get basically the latest of what's going on, and also to meet and revisit with some of our great, courageous leaders, be they elected leaders, community leaders, civic leaders, faith leaders, young leaders."
Kapp said the digital team is basing the Headquarters account on accounts like Courier Newsroom and MeidasTouch News, which churn out political news content to support Democratic candidates.
She added that within its general young audience target, the account will specifically focus on reaching "young men and people of color."
The Hill's Fiona Bork has more here.
No comments:
Post a Comment