Trump, Biden campaign via Snapchat

DIGITAL Traditional means gone as photo-sending app is new battlefield

Washington, May 27: Gone are the lively meetings, the distribution of flyers on busy campuses. The Covid-19 pandemic has put an abrupt stop to traditional US political means of courting young voters — forcing presidential candidates to turn to Snapchat instead. The photo-sending app that boasts 229 million users — better known for filters that turn your face into a puppy or a vampire — is a new battlefield for opponents President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden, both of whom are in their 70s. The stakes are high:

Gen Z (ages 18-23) and millennials (ages 24-39) together make up more than 35 percent of the American voting population.

For them, traditional forms of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are increasingly growing passé. In the race to win them over, Trump’s reelection team boasts a solid lead, nor have they suffered from lockdowns to slow the spread of Covid19. “The President’s campaign has always prioritised digital tools and data infrastructure, so it was a very natural shift to 100 percent digital campaigning,” Ken Farnaso, the Trump campaign deputy press secretary, said. The 100-person strong team is also backing a candidate who is infamous for his own prolific social media use. “It’s clear that we’re wiping the floor with Biden’s campaign,” Farnaso said.

As a result, the number of subscribers to Trump’s Snapchat account tripled in eight months, easily reaching 1.5 million. Biden’s team declined to share its number of Snapchat subscribers. “I’m sure we can do better on the internet,” Biden himself admitted during an interview shared on Snapchat two weeks ago, from his home in Delaware. He had been sheltering there until Monday, when he made his first public appearance in months for a Memorial Day ceremony, sporting a black face mask. “The fact is, we’re trying,” he said. His team has refused to provide details on its arsenal but insists that it has been working twice as hard on digital campaigning since the start of the pandemic. Top staffers for his former rivals Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke and Kamala Harris have also been recruited to beef up the ranks.

On his Snapchat profile, the former number two to President Barack Obama keeps it cool: He is shown without a tie but with his signature aviator sunglasses.

GEN Z (ages 18-23) and millennials (ages 2439) together make up over 35 percent of the American voting population. For them, traditional forms of social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, are increasingly growing passé.