TikTok has emerged as an essential part of the 2024 campaign media landscape, with nearly 40% of adults under 30 regularly consuming news on the platform, according to a Pew study.
With Meta announcing earlier this year that it would no longer prioritize political content, TikTok became a key tool for reaching young voters, despite the controversy about banning it in the U.S. “TikTok is really the only social media platform where campaigns or political groups can have their content served to people that don’t already follow them,” says Kyle Tharp, author of the FWIW newsletter, which tracks digital politics.
That both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have embraced non-traditional media like TikTok and podcasts in their 2024 campaigns points to a shift in where and how voters are engaging with politics, Tharp argues. “Increasingly, those types of persuadable voters that [candidates] need to reach are not consuming news and information on mainstream platforms,” he says. “They’re not watching CNN, they’re not reading the New York Times, and instead, a lot of them are getting their news about the election from social media platforms.”
TIME spoke to Tharp on Oct. 31 to get his insights on the top five campaign moments that went viral on TikTok. He says in 2024, the biggest breakout moments for TikTok users ranged from researched explainers of Project 2025 to a remixed song made from a Trump debate quote about immigrants “eating the pets.”
Harris becoming the nominee
When Harris became the Democratic nominee at the end of July after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, she received a swell of support online. “It just unleashed a complete vibe shift on the platform,” says Tharp.
When Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Harris on July 21, the campaign’s TikTok following doubled overnight, after rebranding from @BidenHQ to @KamalaHQ. Users embraced meme culture, clipping a May 2023 quote from Harris, in which she recalled her mother asking, “Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” and making TikTok edits in the neon green signature color of singer Charli XCX’s “Brat Summer” trend.
“There was a lot of reporting earlier this spring where it showed consistently there’s a lot of negative sentiment towards Joe Biden and a lot of positive sentiment towards Donald Trump,” says Tharp. “And after Kamala Harris became the nominee, that really shifted, and the majority of posts mentioning Harris were positive, and a majority of folks mentioning Trump were negative. And that has really stayed static throughout the entire election cycle.”
Harris-Trump presidential debate
The September 10 presidential debate between Harris and Trump was another big moment on the platform. “Millions and millions of people watched the debate on traditional television, but tens of millions of people were watching the debate on TikTok,” Tharp says. “Maybe they don’t really care to sit down and watch a 90-minute TV segment, but they will be scrolling through their feeds to see the top clips or what people are saying about the debate.”
Trump’s false claim about immigrants in Ohio “eating the dogs” became a trending audio, while videos of Harris’s reactions to some of Trump’s comments “took off like wildfire” on the platform, Tharp says.
Project 2025
Content explaining Project 2025, an initiative from the conservative Heritage Foundation that lays out policy recommendations for the next Republican President, made waves on TikTok earlier this year. The content primarily took the form of explainers, breaking down the impact of proposed policies. (Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025.)
“From April to June, we really saw tons and tons of individual creators, not just the campaigns, but individual creators talking about Project 2025, on TikTok,” says Tharp.
Trump’s McDonald’s stunt
Footage of Trump serving fries at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Oct. 20 has done big numbers on the platform. “Trump’s stunt at McDonald’s… really paid off for his campaign on TikTok. It generated like over 200 million views on pieces of content about it, which was really wild and unexpected,” Tharp says.
“A lot of Americans view Trump as a reality TV star that does cartoonish weird things,” Tharp adds, “and that type of behavior really captivates audiences.”
Celebrity and creator endorsements
Celebrity and creator endorsements throughout the past 100 days have captured a lot of engagement, Tharp says. The Harris campaign has found success posting videos featuring Barack and Michelle Obama, and celebrities such as Usher, while the Trump campaign has seen success tapping influencers like Jake and Logan Paul and billionaire Elon Musk.
“Most people go to TikTok for non-political content, and so when you’re able to show celebrities and non-political folks in your content, it probably pops off a lot more,” Tharp says.
