Biden team seeks to influence the influencers

NEWS AND OPINION:

Forget the standard input from public relations professionals, pollsters and publicity counselors as the 2024 presidential race looms on the horizon. President Biden will rely instead on the savvy contributors to such sites as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to craft effective messages to the public, according to one new report.

“Biden’s digital strategy: an army of influencers,” Axios said in an analysis released Monday.

“President Biden’s not-yet-official bid for re-election will lean on hundreds of social media ‘influencers’ who will tout Biden’s record — and soon may have their own briefing room at the White House,” Axios said.

Yes, their own briefing room.

“The move aims to boost Biden’s standing among young voters who are crucial to Democrats’ success in elections — and to potentially counter former President Trump’s massive social media following, if he’s the GOP nominee in 2024,” the news organization said.

The possibility itself generated considerable coverage.

“Biden will be enlisting hundreds of TikTok stars and social media influencers to push his propaganda out to young people. Silly us, we thought he was busy working to ban TikTok since it’s a security threat and stuff — but apparently President Silver Alert discovered he may want to use the platform to indoctrinate young people into voting away their lives and money to support him,” quipped Twitchy.com.

“Democrats love their uninformed, angry, emotionally thin-skinned voters. Keep in mind, they’ve been pushing to lower the voting age to 16, probably because it’s easier to sucker young people who aren’t already getting taxed to death to keep them in power,” Twitchy said.

Reaction continued.

“Joe Biden is planning to recruit an army of TikTok influencers to help burnish his 2024 re-election hopes by pushing what he claims are his administration’s successes,” the Daily Mail proclaimed.

“The move is part of a strategy to coalesce influencers and reach a younger demographic that may not be tapped into mainstream news or follow the White House on social media,” advised Business Insider.

The influencer search is already underway, however.

“When President Biden hosted a celebration with lawmakers on the South Lawn to mark the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats’ signature spending package, a unique group of guests joined them,” National Public Radio said in an Oct. 9 report.

“More than 20 influencers — content creators with devoted followers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube — received special invitations. It’s part of a White House strategy to reach younger people where they are — which often is scrolling on a device,” the report said.

THAT’S THE TICKET

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a busy man. On Friday, he’ll journey to New Hampshire to headline the Amos Tuck Dinner in Manchester — organized by the Granite State’s Republican Party and named for Amos Tuck, a 19th-century congressman who founded the state’s Republican Party in 1853.

So it’s a dinner of note.

But unfounded rumors have popped up in the media lately suggesting that the big event could be a flop. Not so, say the organizers.

“Reports from national political outlets that the party is struggling to sell tickets to the Amos Tuck fundraising dinner featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis simply are not true,” Chris Ager, chairman of the New Hampshire GOP, tells Michael Graham, an analyst for the New Hampshire Journal.

“We will have a full house on Friday. Ticket sales are right where we predicted they’d be. And that’s very good news for our party. We are looking for a record breaking event,” Mr. Ager told the news organization.

Mr. DeSantis then heads south.

“DeSantis has scheduled his first South Carolina stop for April 19 in the state’s GOP vote-rich upstate region. What will his message be? In a speech last week in Pennsylvania, DeSantis said he is focused on winning. ‘There’s no substitute for victory,’ he said. ‘The winners get to make policy. The losers go home,’” Mr. Graham wrote.

YOUNG REPUBLICANS AT WORK

The New York Young Republicans Club continues to set an example as a feisty presence on the political stage — most recently organizing a peaceful demonstration of support for former President Donald Trump during his appearance in a New York City courtroom.

The club’s next event is also of note.

Newsmax prime-time host and author Greg Kelly and 2022 Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake will share the stage at a private location in Manhattan.

Mr. Kelly is a “television personality, radio host, journalist and military veteran,” the club said in an advance notice for the event, which takes place April 29.

He is also the son of former New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the author of “Justice for All: How the Left Is Wrong About Law Enforcement.” The book was published on Jan. 23 by Simon & Schuster and deemed a “stirring defense of American law enforcement” by the publisher.

And Ms. Lake?

“Dubbed ‘Trump in Heels’ by the media, she led the largest political movement in Arizona history. Her movement may have started in the Grand Canyon State, but it has now spread across the entire country,” the club noted in the aforementioned notice.

POLL DU JOUR

• 72% of U.S. adults are “very concerned” about the price of food and consumer goods; 78% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats agree.

• 61% of U.S. adults overall are “very concerned” about the cost of housing; 58% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats agree.

• 36% of U.S. adults are “very concerned” about the stability of banks and financial institutions; 43% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats agree.

• 27% of U.S. adults are “very concerned” about people who want to work being unable to find jobs; 22% of Republicans and 29% of Democrats agree.

• 24% of U.S. adults are “very concerned” about how the stock market is doing; 31% of Republicans and 18% of Democrats agree.

SOURCE: A Pew Research Center survey of 5,079 U.S. adults conducted March 27-April 2.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.