John Fetterman’s Senate campaign has officially joined TikTok

Photo by Nate Smallwood / Getty Images

Over the last few weeks, John Fetterman's campaign to troll Republican opponent Mehmet Oz has dominated social media. The campaign announced on Thursday that it is opening an official account on TikTok.

The TikTok account was officially launched with a video of Fetterman speaking directly to the camera. Fetterman made an expected jab at Oz in the short video.

I am currently on TikTok. It's a good thing! At the end of the video, Fetterman said something.

On the heels of a series of videos attacking Oz, the campaign decided to join TikTok. It happened earlier in the week. There is a video of Oz shopping at a grocery store.

Fetterman referred to the tray as a veggie tray.

On Tuesday, the Fetterman campaign announced that it had raised more than half a million dollars in a single day.

It wasn't until the 2020 cycle that politicians and their campaign arms started investing in TikTok. More politicians are on TikTok this year, but Democrats and left-leaning candidates have been the fastest to adapt.

The Fetterman campaign will continue to meet voters wherever they are and have a lot of fun doing it, according to Joe Calvello.

Pennsylvania is a must win seat for Democrats in order to get a majority in the Senate. President Joe Biden won the state by a small margin in 2020. If Democrats win the state, the youth vote in Pennsylvania will be more important than ever. Pennsylvania is one of only a few states in which the youth vote can make a difference in the election.

Fetterman's team is focused on the youth impact. According to Calvello, the Fetterman campaign's TikTok account would be run by a Gen Z staffer with 25,000 on her personal account. The campaign wants to create content that feels natural for the platform by putting the account in a young person's hands.

A Fox News survey shows Fetterman leading by 11 points.

While coming under fire for failing to address harmful election misinformation, political campaigns still view social media platforms as powerhouses for raising money. There is still a lot of money being spent on Facebook, but maybe it is more for acquisition, fundraising, and communicating with your existing friends.

The potential to leak sensitive US data to the Chinese government has caused alarm among Republicans and Democrats. The Biden administration banned the app from being used on White House or federal government devices due to security reasons.

Fetterman's online jabs at Oz have hit a sweet spot on social platforms like Facebook, which increasingly surface low- production video content on user feeds. With only a few seconds to grab a voter's attention as they scroll, experts say more authentic content tends to receive greater engagement.

The Fetterman camp believes that they have an advantage on social platforms that are often seen as slanted toward extreme views and reactionary politics. Calvello said that John's followers will see brand new content specifically for TikTok and that they can expect to keep up with him. TikTok users will see John's posts on social media because he is a unique candidate.