The Democrats are using TikTok in an attempt to reach young voters and promote the Biden administration, but videos featuring the president have repeatedly reached a limited audience since the Democratic Party started the account in March.
The first TikTok posted on the account set short video clips and photos of the Biden administration set to a viral Bruno Mars and Adele mashup audio. The video caption read, “In 2021, the Democratic Party began to build a better America. We recommit ourselves to this promise in 2022.” (RELATED: TikTok Could Become A Powerful Propaganda Tool If It Stays With China, Experts Warn)
@thedemocrats Welcome to the Democratic National Committee’s TikTok! #dnc #democrats #thedemocrats #democratsoftiktok #fyp ♬ Jr Stit x bruno mars x adele – Margaux_lbt
Users in the comment section, however, did not express much optimism. In fact, many of the video’s top comments were negative. “This one didn’t age well lol,” said the top-liked comment. “Promises made, promises broken. no $15 min wage, no student loan forgiveness, and no action on voting rights,” said another. Several users left strings of laughing emojis with no additional comment.
The verified account, which goes by the username @thedemocrats, has accumulated over 109,000 followers and 2.4 million likes. However, videos featuring Biden often score low views and engagement.
Three of the account’s 10 lowest-viewed videos directly feature the president. Biden’s lowest-viewed TikTok video shows him speaking to an audience about the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill. The video, posted March 15, reached under 8,800 views, making it the 5th lowest viewed video on the account overall.
Another video reached just over 10,000 views and featured footage of the president receiving his second COVID-19 booster shot. The video showed Biden speaking to someone off camera while a trending sound played over the original video audio. (RELATED: The White House’s ‘Advocacy’ TikTok Campaign Was Actually A Democratic Front The Entire Time)
The 7th lowest video on the account also featured the president. It hit approximately 9,500 views on May 24 following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and showed the president speaking on the tragedy.
The video of Biden was posted by the account on the same day as another video in which Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy gave a speech on the shooting. Murphy’s video garnered 97.8 thousand views, over 10 times the number gained by the Commander in Chief.