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Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's content creators share their views on the election

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's content creators share their views on the election

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During this tumultuous election season, TikTok gave us viral dances to campaign slogans remixed with a beat. It also gave us a good laugh or two, fueled in part by comedians using the platform to inject humor into a contentious presidential election.

A growing share of U.S. adults get their news through TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released in September. This revealed that almost 40% of young adults regularly receive messages on the short video platform.

Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris' campaigns have turned to TikTok to reach online audiences, even as Chinese ownership of the app has become a political issue in its own right. Trump joined TikTok in June and Harris's nascent presidential campaign received a major boost from fan-edited compilations on the app.

Another group taking advantage of TikTok's wide reach? Comedian.

While many waited to see who would play the lead actors of choice on “Saturday Night Live,” some people have been making their own contribution in viral TikTok videos for months or even years.

USA TODAY spoke with three TikTok creators who are tipping themselves to be the leading candidates in this election. They shared a belief that political comedy should make a statement and discussed their approach to their skits. For those who have ditched traditional news channels in favor of social media snippets, this is a behind-the-scenes look at what they might be seeing instead.

Polls for the 2024 presidential election: Current polls on Harris vs. Trump, with five days to go

Kamala Harris' laugh, “n'kay?” Meet comedian Allison Reese

You may recognize Allison Reese, a Los Angeles-based comedian from before this election. She began doing an impression of Harris back in 2019, when Harris was running for federal office for the first time.

“I do impressions and stuff, and rarely do I get the chance to do that for someone who looks like me, especially in the political realm,” she told USA TODAY in an interview. When Harris became vice president during the pandemic, she stuck around. She now has more than 315,000 followers on TikTok alone.

In most of her skits, she interprets Harris' laughter and phrases strung together with a rhetorical “n'kay?”

But her impressions took on new meaning when Biden dropped out of the race, leaving Harris with just more than three months to try to convince the country to vote for her as the next president.

“I just never really thought it would be like this… and the weight of it… I take it very seriously,” Reese said. “I really try not to hit. I really want to strike whenever I do something.”

Reese recalled “SNL” skits about Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton having a big impact on people's perceptions of them. She said her views on Harris as the competent person in the room come through in her impressions, even as she raves about some of Harris' quirkier moments and his efforts to win centrist voters.

“You should ensure counterculture. That doesn't mean being offensive. That means you put yourself in opposition to what you see,” Reese said.

“Trump was born a teenager” by a teenage girl

Kiera Nusbaum has more than 110,000 followers on TikTok for skits in which she lip-syncs Trump's own words, often with the caption “Trump was born a teenage girl.” One of her videos has nearly 22 million views.

Nusbaum herself is a young girl. As a 17-year-old freshman at a private college in Southern California, she will miss voting by a few days, although she said she has been involved in politics since 2020.

“Since I can't vote, I feel like this platform is the next best thing I can do to make a difference,” Nusbaum told USA TODAY in an interview.

She said she made the first video after watching the presidential debate with her classmates. She found Trump immature and continued to think it would be a good skit, but she didn't expect it to go viral or even become her platform.

Now, after her morning class, she puts on the red feather robe, scrolls through comments suggesting new Trump lines to imitate, and films the videos in her dorm room. Nusbaum said some of her followers are Trump supporters, and she hopes her videos bring humor to political discussions to find middle ground in a polarized climate.

“If it reaches this audience, I just hope they can recognize the hypocrisy of condemning the behavior of teenage girls when it is reflected in the person they idolize,” Nusbaum said. “I just hope that it can be viewed with some nuance that just recognizes the irony of the situation.”

JD Vance has extreme eyeliner and extreme politics in Sam Wiles' videos

Sam Wiles is a comedian based in Los Angeles. He said he doesn't consider himself an impersonator, but he does consider himself a political junkie and Vance lookalike. Wiles' TikTok account, which has more than 60,000 followers, features skits of Vance wearing thick eyeliner and promoting political proposals.

Wiles told USA TODAY he read Vance's book “Hillbilly Elegy” and followed Vance's political development after the book's success. When Vance was selected as Trump's candidate to run over the summer, Wiles found social media videos to be a good medium to distribute comedy skits about Vance.

“I just tried to be steadfast in writing about him because I find him so vile,” Wiles said.

Despite Vance's many viral moments during this campaign, Wiles doesn't monitor his coverage too closely, instead writing his own skits.

“I lose my temper a lot… it's more fun to live in a world where he's a little dumber and a little less smart,” Wiles said. “I find a big scam very funny.”

Like Nusbaum and Reese, he believes political comedy should be political, but wasn't sure his videos would have a greater impact than just making people laugh.

What else you should know about the 2024 presidential election

Speaking of comedy: A comedian caused controversy in the last week of the election campaign. Tony Hinchcliffe, known as “Kill Tony,” called Puerto Rico a “floating pile of trash” at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, drawing criticism from both sides and costing Trump at least one endorsement. Biden also came under fire for his appearance, calling Trump supporters “trash” while simultaneously condemning the comedian.

In a presidential campaign that polls show is consistently a failure, every moment counts.

Trump and Harris were busy campaigning in the swing states with just a few days until the election. Because of the country's electoral college system, the race will likely be decided by how Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona vote.

USA TODAY also compiled the most consequential elections across the country outside of the presidency. Follow us for election news.

Kinsey Crowley is a featured news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley.

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