In the polls, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a long shot independent presidential candidate, struggling to compete against the well-funded incumbent and his spotlight-grabbing predecessor. But on TikTok, Kennedy is a towering figure, with more than 1.2 million followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cRFK Jr is making some of the best political candidate TikTok content ever made,\u201d news content creator V Spehar recently posted on Threads, adding: \u201cThis is not an endorsement, I\u2019m just saying he\u2019s broken through and is hitting millions of views day after day. Folks should pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
How Kennedy\u2019s presence on the popular social media platform will affect the November election is impossible to say. But there\u2019s little doubt who is responsible for Kennedy\u2019s rise there: Link Lauren, 25, a politically eclectic content creator who has shot to fame over the past year by covering and collaborating with long-shot presidential candidates.<\/p>\n
Lauren has amassed more than 455,400 followers on his personal TikTok account and nearly 20 million likes. By contrast, the Biden campaign has just 274,000 followers, and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has no official TikTok presence.<\/p>\n
With 170 million users in the United States, TikTok is considered fundamental to reaching young voters, who were key to Biden\u2019s 2020 triumph over Trump. Kennedy hired Lauren as a paid senior adviser in November in hopes of reaching this critical demographic \u2014 though there\u2019s debate over whether his campaign is more likely to appeal to Biden or Trump supporters. Last week, the bipartisan No Labels group announced it won\u2019t field a presidential candidate, leaving Kennedy as the most prominent independent candidate in the race.<\/p>\n
Since joining the campaign, Lauren has played a key role in designing some of Kennedy\u2019s most successful online initiatives, including drafting the script for a recent video aimed at voters under 30 who, as Kennedy says in the spot, \u201cprobably know my name but not much about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the video, Kennedy describes the political history of his storied clan, talks about his record as an environmental and antiwar activist and lays out positions intended to appeal to voters beset by high rents and low rates of homeownership. It has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on Instagram and has drawn thousands of comments.<\/p>\n
Last month, in a separate video criticizing a measure moving through Congress that could lead to a ban on TikTok, Kennedy referred to Lauren as one of his campaign\u2019s key staffers. \u201cPeople love TikTok,\u201d Kennedy said in the video. \u201cIt\u2019s the digital public square.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren is \u201ca very, very good communicator,\u201d said Olivia Nuzzi, a political reporter for New York Magazine, who said she thinks of Lauren as \u201ca political influencer \u2014 somewhere between an activist and a reporter and an operative.\u201d At a time when polling shows that many young voters are skeptical of institutions and \u201cnot excited about either major party\u2019s candidate,\u201d she said, \u201cLink understands how to make complex issues and complex individuals palatable on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren said he was drawn to the Kennedy campaign \u2014 his first official job in politics \u2014 for the professional opportunity and to become involved in the political process. He has not expressed support for Kennedy\u2019s more unorthodox views. Kennedy, whose campaign is managed by his daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former CIA officer, and includes communications director Del Bigtree, the CEO of an anti-vaccine advocacy group, has promoted false claims, extreme positions and shifting postures on a variety of issues. Kennedy has long faced condemnation for spreading falsehoods about the safety of vaccines \u2014 claims debunked by leading health and science organizations and ones that Lauren does not amplify.<\/p>\n
Lauren said he hopes to use the experience to become an influential commentator \u2014 and perhaps run for office himself. Many of his heroes have also blurred the line between political operative and media personality \u2014 an increasing phenomenon online, where many young people spurn traditional news sources in favor of social media content creators.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the most effective political figures today are media figures,\u201d Lauren said. \u201cI look at someone like George Stephanopoulos who was Bill Clinton\u2019s communications director in the 90s. He used that knowledge to go become an anchor and a journalist and report the news. For me, it\u2019s being a social media personality and covering the news while doing a campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Lauren describes his own political philosophy as anti-establishment, he cites conservative influencers \u2014 Tucker Carlson, Glenn Greenwald, Tulsi Gabbard \u2014 as inspirations because of their strong personal brands and ability to build successful independent media businesses. He recently slammed traditional cable news outlets on X as \u201cfull of hypocrites who\u2019ve sold their souls to peddle DNC talking points\u201d and says \u201cI love Fox News because they have the best ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren grew up in Dallas, where he currently lives, and attended New York University. He opened his TikTok account when the pandemic hit, but didn\u2019t begin posting in a significant way until after he graduated in 2022 with a degree in music business and entertainment.<\/p>\n
He started by covering not politics, but pop culture. His breakout moment came last May with King Charles\u2019s coronation. Lauren did hours of live streams, amassing more than 32 million views on TikTok that month alone.<\/p>\n
That same month, Trump did a town hall on CNN, and \u201cCNN viewers were apoplectic,\u201d Lauren said. \u201cThey were melting down. They were upset that Donald Trump was on their network. And so I got on TikTok and said, \u2018These viewers need to calm down. You can\u2019t live in your little silos \u2026 Trump has every right as a former president to go on any network.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
His post, he said, was \u201cvery shocking to people because TikTok was such a left-leaning environment at that point.\u201d But his stance earned him credibility with conservatives and independents, and his following began rising by the thousands.<\/p>\n
Within a month, Lauren was creating political content regularly on TikTok, building a large following primarily by covering minor presidential candidates. He interviewed self-help author Marianne Williamson shortly after her on-again, off-again campaign for the Democratic nomination kicked off last year. He traveled to New Hampshire to film with Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips (D), who later suspended his own challenge to Biden. And in January, he traveled to Iowa to cover the Republican caucuses, where he filmed content with pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has since ended his campaign for the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n
Dean Phillips is challenging Joe Biden in his bid for the White House. I went to go meet him in New Hampshire. He\u2019s from Minnesota and is a three-term Congressman. #deanphillips #uspolitics #politicaltiktok #politicstiktok #foxnews #cnnnews #newhampshire <\/p>\n
\u266c Chill and gentle lo-fi\/10 minutes(1455687) \u2013 nightbird_bgm <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In person, Lauren can speak as authoritatively about Gen Z YouTubers and reality TV as he can the nuances of the electoral system. Ramaswamy\u2019s campaign says Lauren gave it advice on how to succeed online.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a quality that I think is increasingly absent in politics, which is that he genuinely wants to help people,\u201d said Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy\u2019s former communications director. \u201cHe\u2019d give us advice, and be like, \u2018Here\u2019s what works for me.\u2019 He wasn\u2019t necessarily a Vivek fan, but we struck up a friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren says his politics have evolved since he was a college student. \u201cWhen I was living in New York going to NYU, my political beliefs were a bit more one way. Then as you grow, you evolve, meet more people and you travel, your political views shift. I consider myself just an independent thinker, because I\u2019m gonna call it like I see it, whether you\u2019re Republican or Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his coverage of right-wing candidates is a reflection of opportunity rather than ideology, adding: \u201cI never want to just cover one side of the aisle.\u201d But, he said, \u201cWhen I started covering politics, the DNC didn\u2019t want to have a primary, they were pushing other Democratic primary challengers off the ballots. So I was left to cover conservative politics. They were having debates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone can get involved in politics. Look at congress. There\u2019s room for everybody. #uspolitics #politicstiktok #politicaltiktok <\/p>\n
\u266c original sound \u2013 Link Lauren <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For now, Lauren sees an opportunity in speaking to younger voters disaffected from the two-party system. \u201cI\u2019m like, let me get on here \u2026,\u201d he said of his TikTok account, \u201cbecause you\u2019re not going to hear this on NBC or MSNBC. They\u2019re going to gaslight you and say everything\u2019s better under Joe Biden and everything\u2019s amazing, and that\u2019s not the case at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many young people at a recent Kennedy campaign event in Los Angeles agreed with those sentiments. Phoebe Cutler, a 21-year-old college student attending with her father, said she voted for Biden in 2020, but won\u2019t again because Biden has not \u201cimproved the socioeconomic landscape\u201d for young people. She said she is also appalled by his stance on Gaza.<\/p>\n
Though she reads the Economist, Cutler said she gets much of her news from alternative sources like Russell Brand\u2019s podcast and \u201ccitizen journalism.\u201d \u201cI try to take opinions from both sides and try to decipher my own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lauren thinks legacy media has abandoned young people like Cutler by being slow to adopt new formats like TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can either resist TikTok or you can use it to reach people,\u201d he said. \u201cGen Z are not going to see the nightly news, so if you want to reach people you\u2019ve got to get on these platforms and speak to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever happens to Kennedy\u2019s candidacy, Lauren said he plans to continue to create content about the 2024 election. Even as he helps RFK flourish on TikTok, Lauren is working to build his own following across platforms, networking with leaders in politics and media and considering launching a newsletter on the platform Substack.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, Lauren said, he was approached about staging his own run for office in his home state of Texas \u2014 a prospect he finds appealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you really want to get things done,\u201d he said, \u201cyou have to be ready to get your hands dirty, get in the ring, and get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the polls, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a long shot independent presidential candidate, struggling to compete against the well-funded incumbent and his spotlight-grabbing predecessor. But on TikTok, Kennedy is a towering figure, with more than 1.2 million followers. \u201cRFK Jr is making some of the best political candidate TikTok content ever made,\u201d news content […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}