Back in June, when the Biden campaign was still in full swing, the president visited Los Angeles for what turned out to be a record-breaking fundraiser with Hollywood heavyweights like Julia Roberts. But the day before the star-studded main event, the campaign was busy courting a less famous and arguably more important group: social-media influencers. As part of its Creators Who Vote initiative, the Biden team invited 50 podcasters, creators, and micro-influencers (those with anywhere from 1,000-100,000 followers) to a cocktail hour to get them excited about the president’s candidacy and platform.
The cocktail party even featured a surprise special guest — not Biden, but former president Barack Obama. Several creators who attended the gathering that day at the Ritz-Carlton’s Sendero steakhouse in Downtown L.A.
were tepid about Biden, telling Rolling Stone they were more or less resigned to voting for him. It took the star power of Obama to sell them on the Democratic party’s cause. As fashion and beauty influencer Chazlyn Yvonne put it at the time: “I think what Barack Obama was there to do was .
.. position it in a way where it’s not about one person or the other, it’s really just about choosing what’s right.
” But since Biden bowed out of the race on July 21 and Kamala Harris became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, there’s been a distinctive shift in the creator community and their Gen Z audience: You could even call it enthusiasm. “Before it was li.