The Scoop
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s first major address since his inauguration in January, House Democrats are leaning heavily into a new media strategy to push back against his agenda.
On Tuesday, as Trump addresses a joint session of Congress, House Democratic leadership will welcome at least 40 digital media creators and new-media journalists to get out the caucus’ message, a Democratic aide told Semafor.
Before Trump’s speech on Tuesday, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will host members of Congress, their guests, and dozens of digital creators, including the YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, podcaster Jessica Yellin, and creators from Call to Activism and Crooked Media, among others.
After the speech, House Democrats will hold their first post-address spin room for new media and digital creators. Several lawmakers have invited guests to the speech who’ve been impacted by the Trump administration’s early moves, including fired federal workers, and the digital creators will be able to chat with them.
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In the months since Trump’s election, House Democrats have been testing out new media strategies, hoping to right some of the errors made during the last election and begin to level the playing field with conservative new media. At a press event at the Capitol last week, Democrats invited dozens of influencers, encouraging them to clip the event and interview lawmakers. Party leaders have privately discussed digital tactics that include increasing their output of straight-to-camera video posts, and even moving away from written press releases in favor of a social video-first messaging strategy.
As Semafor previously reported, congressional Democrats have been meeting privately with ideologically-aligned influencers who have been engaging members of Congress on how to improve their social videos, demonstrating everything from proper camera techniques to which type of mini microphone to buy.
Jeffries in particular has adopted a media strategy that has elevated his profile and made him a ubiquitous presence across political media. Since the beginning of the new Congress, the Democratic minority leader has been a regular fixture on cable television, participated in numerous podcast interviews, and begun sharing short-form videos. Much of the focus of the content was political, but the messaging was also intended to demonstrate Democrats’ looseness with podcasters. Stephen A. Smith, the popular ESPN sports commentator, applauded Jeffries last month for appearing on his podcast and displaying a strong grasp of New York professional and college basketball.
Still, not all of Jeffries’ efforts have been well-received. Critics online have picked at everything from Jeffries’ occasionally vague answers in interviews to his camerawork.
Other Democrats individually have taken engagement with left-leaning podcasters and posters a step further. Rep. Ro Khanna this week invited Carlos Eduardo Espina, a human rights advocate with over 13 million followers, to be his guest at Trump’s speech to Congress.
In an interview with Semafor on Tuesday, the California congressman said that Democrats need to view left-leaning creators like Espina as part of Democrats’ political movement, not simply as vehicles to get the party’s message out. He said that while he believed the recent initiatives are a step in the right direction, the relationship between the party and creators is still a one-way street. His decision to invite Espina to the speech on Tuesday was meant to signal to his followers that they are important parts of the political conversation.
“That’s what the right does better than us. We treat our podcasters, our influencers, as, ‘Oh, there’s an election coming up. We got to get to the young voters, let’s go schedule a bunch of interviews with them,’” he told Semafor, referring to content creators. “The right takes their podcasters, whether it’s Charlie Kirk or whether it’s Ben Shapiro or others, and says, ‘You’re part of our actual movement. You’re going to help determine who makes up our Cabinet, and take part in the governing of this country.’ And that’s what I think we need to do with our base of influencers.”