Gen Z will be watching tonight’s debate on TikTok

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump will square off at 9pm E.T. tonight, for their first—and possibly only—one-on-one debate. While there won’t be a live audience, the debate will air on ABC News and other major networks, including CNN, CBS, Fox News, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, PBS, NewsNation and BBC. But instead of tuning in live, many viewers will likely be waiting for the debate’s most talked-about moments to hit their TikTok For You Page (FYP).

In order to reach voters, candidates have to meet the voters where they are: online. In a recent AP-NORC Center survey, 40% of respondents said they were “extremely likely” to watch or listen to clips from the debate after the event had already aired, compared to 37% who said they were “extremely likely” to tune in live. The Pew Research Center also reported last year that a third of adults under 30 in the United States regularly got their news from TikTok. Gen Z TikTok users are also more likely than users of other platforms to engage in online political acts, including sharing posts or following politicians. If the 2016 election was the Facebook election and 2020 played out on Twitter (now X), 2024 is TikTok’s turn in the spotlight.

For those waiting for the debate to trickle down to their FYP, TikTokkers like Harry Sisson, the 21-year-old college student backing President Joe Biden, Pearlmania500, the Philly-based standup comedian, and Link Lauren, the 25-year-old who gained fame by interviewing unlikely presidential candidates, are poised to provide live reactions and recaps of the debate.

Studies have repeatedly shown that TikTok impacts political views, and indeed viral debate clips can hold significant sway over public opinion. No surprise, then, that politicians are fully engaged on the platform. Vice President Kamala Harris created a TikTok account on July 25 and gained 4.2 million followers in under two weeks. Despite previously pledging to ban the platform, Trump also created an account in early June, gaining more than 9 million followers in about two months. (He’s also now positioning himself as the app’s savior.)

According to Zelf, a company analyzing and tracking TikTok posts, videos about the two campaigns are generating a similar number of views and posts. Even before she was handed the baton from President Joe Biden, Harris had become a meme-worthy figure, with such viral moments as, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” and “Hello, Senator Bennet.” While Zelf found videos about Harris and Gov. Tim Walz were overwhelmingly positive, videos about Trump and Sen. JD Vance were mostly found to be negative. With the potential for memeable moments and viral gaffes—negative Biden-Trump debate videos received more than 40 million views—tonight’s stakes are sky-high.

Personally, though, I still prefer my FYP focus on cat videos and clips from Girls.