Emily Dorman, Staff Writer
FSView
Nov. 9, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ET
You may have seen politicians with some of your favorite celebrities posting edits of themselves or being interviewed on popular podcasts. It seems like social media and pop culture go hand in hand more and more with each election cycle.
Whether these moments actually change the course of an election or simply reflect existing attitudes toward candidates is difficult to determine. Politics and pop culture intersect frequently. The rise of social media and President Donald Trump’s political career have helped transform that relationship into an increasingly prominent campaign strategy.
Steve Bannon was Trump’s White House chief strategist and senior counselor during the president’s first term. In his 2018 book “Fear: Trump in the White House,” journalist Bob Woodward described a conversation in which Bannon talked to Trump about populism, and Trump embraced the term “popularist” instead.
That idea of being a “popularist” has taken on new meaning in an era when political messaging can travel just as quickly as a trending sound or celebrity endorsement.
“As someone who works at the intersection of politics and communications, I strongly believe that media and pop culture can have a significant impact on political outcomes,” FSU human rights and social justice major Isabella Paez said to the FSView.
Social media use for campaigning
From X, formerly known as Twitter, being used for presidential announcements to Kamala Harris’ campaign adopting branding inspired by Charli XCX’s album “Brat,” political organizations have increasingly borrowed from the entertainment industry to market their candidates.
“Although this was the 2024 election, I think Kamala ‘brat’ Summer was an insanely popular movement and definitely contributed to the youth vote for her,” FSU political science major Emma Claire Goldstein said to the FSView.
National party committees and campaigns have also turned to TikTok to circulate endorsements, memes, and viral edits, allowing local and state-level races to reach audiences well beyond their geographic boundaries.
“The media shapes how people perceive candidates, issues, and even their role within a community. Pop culture also has the power to make complex political topics more accessible and relatable, helping people engage with issues they might not otherwise pay attention to,” Paez said.
Online branding
The Democratic National Committee has been particularly active on platforms like TikTok, where political messaging is often packaged through familiar pop culture references, memes, and edits of Democratic candidates.
References to artists like Lorde, television shows like “Glee,” and cultural phenomena like “The Hunger Games” have helped campaigns develop a recognizable online presence.
Online branding, coupled with the growing visibility of the democratic socialist movement and increased attention to state-level elections, gave some Democratic candidates an opportunity to connect with younger voters in ways that traditional campaign advertising might not.
“I think for this election, especially for the Michigan Senate race, I noticed that Democrat social media platforms put a lot of effort into showcasing Abdul El-Sayed’s humor, which I think carried him far. They had people out here calling him ‘Meandami,'” Goldstein said.
El-Sayed’s campaign relied heavily on pop culture as a strategy. In one June video, he dressed as Steve from “Blue’s Clues” to promote voting by mail, while a TikTok modeled after “Love Island” used the show’s contestant introductions to promote his support for Medicare for All and opposition to corporate PAC money.
El-Sayed ultimately won the race with 52.5% of the vote over Republican Mike Rogers’ 45.5%, according to unofficial results. It’s unclear how his online presence impacted these results.
“Gen Z is just the age where they can vote and we’ve already been angry because we’ve been sitting back and watching the older generation run our society for so long,” FSU marketing and public relations majors Gianna Michel said to the FSView. “And now that we can vote, they are fueling our anger into action.”
Democrats weren’t the only ones experimenting with unconventional approaches to online political branding. During Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary, candidate James Fishback gained attention across platforms like Instagram, X and TikTok.
His online presence included an ad saying he was running “to make the trains run on time,” a phrase long tied to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, a sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson discussing his views on Israel, and a video in which he held an AR-15 over his head and said his campaign would shoot anyone who threatened its staff or volunteers “sight unseen.”
The candidate even went as far as to download Tinder. According to a post on X, he did this “To meet young female voters where they are, and share my plan to make it easier for them to get married, buy a home, and raise a family.”
Although Fishback did not secure the Republican nomination, he attracted attention for his support among younger voters. A Quantus Insights poll reported in August found that 26% of voters ages 18 to 29 would vote for Fishback in a hypothetical gubernatorial election, compared with 21% for Rep. Byron Donalds and 21% for Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins.
Musicians bring politics to the stage
Political branding isn’t limited to social media. Musicians continue to experiment with the intersection of politics and their public platforms, sometimes bringing campaign messaging directly to the stage.
During an Ohio stop on her Unraveled tour, Olididate Amy Acton, prompting discussion among fans. Nicki Minaj appeared alongside Trump at a Republican rally in Michigan, publicly expressing her support for the president and encouraging voters to support Republican candidates
Following the midterm results, musicians found their own ways to celebrate the Democratic victories in Texas, bringing the election into their performances.
At a recent Fort Worth concert, John Summit played “Shades of Blue,” accompanied by blue stage lighting. According to John Summit HQ, the performance was intended to “celebrate Texas turning blue” following Gina Hinojosa’s gubernatorial victory and James Talarico’s Senate win. Doja Cat also joined in on the celebrations, changing the lyrics of her hit song “Paint the Town Red” to “Paint the Town Blue” during her Nov. 4 Dallas performance.
Celebrity involvement can bring attention to campaigns that might otherwise struggle to reach certain audiences. However, it can also invite criticism, particularly when fans disagree with the political positions of artists they admire.
“I feel like there’s always a running joke that they just end up spewing a whole nothingburger when they actually get to talking politics, ” Goldstein said. “In a way, I appreciate when famous people use their platform to encourage people to vote or raise money for good causes. But I feel like a lot of the time they’re so disconnected from the reality that most people are living, whether that’s because of their level of fame or wealth, that when they try to talk politics, it just falls flat.”
AI joins the campaign trail
Artificial intelligence has added another dimension to the conversation, giving campaigns even more opportunities to borrow from entertainment and internet culture.
In October, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate for Tennessee governor, posted an AI-generated video depicting herself and other Tennessee Republicans performing Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” in a parody of his 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. Posted the day before the state’s early voting period began, the video received more than 2.2 million views on X by Oct. 30 and drew criticism from across the political spectrum.
Blackburn ultimately won the gubernatorial election, receiving approximately 45.5% of the vote compared to Democratic candidate Jerri Green’s 43%. While the video generated significant online attention, its impact on the election results remains difficult to measure.
“What tends not to work is overly polished or impersonal content that feels disconnected from voters’ everyday experiences,” Paez said. “One of my favorite trends online was seeing candidates use the sound ‘No Place Like Home’ in their videos. There was something really emotional about seeing people talk about the communities they love and the future they want to build.”
In Charli XCX’s 2026 single “SS26,” from her album “Music, Fashion, Film,” she declares, “Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion or film,” before later singing, “Think my politics could work as a press strategy.”
The results of an election cannot be attributed to one campaign strategy, celebrity appearance or trending sound. Still, pop culture can make political conversations more accessible, introduce people to candidates they might not otherwise know and offer a glimpse into how different generations are feeling about the state of society.
Ultimately, the question may not be whether music, fashion or film can save democracy. It’s whether politicians can use the things people already love, watch, and engage with to encourage them to participate in it.
Emily Dorman is a Staff Writer for the FSView & Florida Flambeau, the student-run, independent online news service for the FSU community. Email our staff at contact@fsview.com.
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