Somewhere between a makeup tutorial and a podcast clip, politics has become part of the daily scroll. Creators are slipping voting reminders into beauty videos, candidates are sitting down with podcasters, and campaigns are paying online personalities to help reach voters.
The 2026 midterms offer a look at how those relationships work in today’s influencer economy. Campaigns brief influencers on competitive races and collaborate on posts, while advocacy groups provide training, research, and financial support. Tonight, creators will also cover the midterms across YouTube livestreams alongside familiar network broadcasts.
These arrangements give campaigns and political groups access to audiences who might otherwise tune politics out, while giving some creators the resources to make political coverage steady work. But a voter-registration reminder, a candidate interview, and a paid campaign post can appear in the same feed. Understanding who funds that content, and what they expect in return, is becoming part of following politics online.
Why campaigns are turning to creators
Creators offer something campaigns want: a highly engaged audience. That audience might follow for political commentary, but it might just as easily come for makeup tutorials or comedy.
“If we’re looking to engage and educate Americans in this modern era, we have to be ready to work with audiences from different places, with different experiences, and who engage with different types of content,” Brian Tyler Cohen, founder of Chorus, a progressive nonprofit that supports creators with training, research, and monthly stipends, told Mashable.
That strategy fits how many Americans encounter news online. According to Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, 21 percent of U.S. adults regularly got news from news influencers, including 38 percent of adults ages 18 to 29. Among those regular consumers, 69 percent mostly came across that news rather than actively seeking it out.
Some Americans say creator content has influenced their decisions, too. In a Sep. 2026 Morning Consult survey, 26 percent of U.S. adults said posts from creators had affected whom they voted for in an election, while 56 percent said it had affected their views on political or social issues.
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What creator partnerships look like
Organizations such as When We All Vote, Chorus, YALLvote, and Gen-Z for Change work with creators to advance civic engagement and political advocacy. Their goals differ, from nonpartisan voter participation to support for progressive causes and candidates, as do the ways creators bring those messages to their audiences.
For some, that has meant using thirst traps to recruit poll workers. Leigh McGowan, the creator known as PoliticsGirl and a Chorus co-founder, said that creator Alex Cascio noticed her thirst-trap posts were driving poll worker sign-ups and shared a template with the organization. Other creators in the program then adapted the format for their own audiences, McGowan said.
Mashable Trend Report
A beauty routine offers another opening. Through When We All Vote’s Voting Squad, beauty creator Gabriel Zamora incorporated a voter-registration reminder into a “GRWM” style makeup video, making voting information part of something his followers already came to watch. The nonpartisan initiative, founded by Michelle Obama, also works with beauty creators Golloria and Toni Bravo, health educator Joel Bervell, and houseplant creator Paige Tailyn.
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Separate from those organized programs, creators also build audiences around political commentary. Posting about a race or supporting a candidate does not, on its own, establish a paid campaign relationship. Progressive commentator Harry Sisson delivers short reactions and a daily political podcast, while left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker’s longer livestreams give him room to discuss events as they unfold. Political advocacy can extend offline, too. In April, Piker joined Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at university rallies.
Candidate interviews are another way to reach those audiences, giving politicians a platform to make their case to a host’s listeners. A guest appearance alone does not establish that the host is being paid by or working for the campaign. The progressive podcast Pod Save America, hosted by former Obama aides, interviewed Democratic Nevada gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford in September, while conservative commentator Ben Shapiro interviewed Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers. The strategy extends beyond explicitly political shows. In 2024, Donald Trump appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, while Kamala Harris joined Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy.
Who’s paying for the political posts?
Campaigns also work directly with creators to make content. In Massachusetts, for example, digital creator Maria Comstock confirmed that she made a video with Sen. Ed Markey’s team, writing that “Influencers are VITAL to modern political campaigns.”
Other partnerships explicitly involve campaigns paying creators to publish posts, sometimes for substantial sums. During California’s gubernatorial primary, Katie Porter’s campaign paid lifestyle creator Avery Cyrus $25,000 for what appeared to be a single TikTok post (which has seemingly been deleted), while Tom Steyer’s California gubernatorial campaign paid 17 influencers at least $5,000 each, the New York Times reported back in August. Steyer defended those payments in a Substack post as compensation for creators’ work and time, comparing them with payments to campaign staff and consultants.
Nonprofit funding can support a creator’s ongoing work rather than pay for a specific campaign post. Chorus, for example, says its monthly stipends help creators grow their platforms and inform their audiences on issues. For McGowan, that support addresses a gap in how Democrats approached online political coverage.
“After 2024, the narrative was that Democrats lost because they weren’t showing up online,” McGowan told Mashable. “The real problem was that progressive creators like us were there, but no one was supporting or amplifying us.”
McGowan said creators in Chorus retain control of their platforms. The organization does not review or approve their posts or ask them to endorse particular candidates. It also does not require creators to disclose its support, citing harassment concerns.
What can audiences tell about creator/campaign relationships?
These arrangements differ in who pays, what the support covers, and how much control a creator retains. Independent commentary may involve no campaign or nonprofit relationship at all. But those distinctions may not be apparent to someone watching a post. A recent Center for Democracy & Technology report, based in part on more than 30 interviews, found that financial ties between creators, agencies, and political groups can be difficult to trace.
Color-coded arrows show how money, influence, and regulation flow among them.
Credit: Center for Democracy & Technology
“The opaque nature of partnerships makes it challenging to distinguish between compensated and uncompensated political coordination online,” the CDT’s researchers wrote. They also noted that a creator’s political beliefs don’t necessarily reveal whether money is involved.
Questions about who funds election content extend beyond campaigns and advocacy groups. During the Los Angeles mayoral primary, several influencers paid by Kalshi or Polymarket partners promoted betting odds while spreading claims that officials were rigging the race against Spencer Pratt, according to an Oct. 29 CDT analysis. Kalshi later asked several influencers to remove posts that violated its affiliate marketing policies. The episode shows how commercial creator partnerships can also become a vehicle for election misinformation.
As the midterms move from voting reminders to results and reactions, the partnerships behind political content will matter beyond Election Day. Campaigns are paying for access to audiences, organizations are funding creators’ ongoing work, and candidates are seeking out familiar hosts. For viewers, the face delivering the message may be recognizable. The relationship behind it can be harder to see.
