From lost followers to backlash in the comments, content creators reflect on the DNC

Merrick Hanna is, by any metric, a TikTok star.

The 19-year-old has more than 32 million followers on the platform and about 20 million across YouTube and Instagram. He’s known for his dancing videos, typically set to viral audio clips and pop songs.

Attending the Democratic National Convention definitely wasn't his normal style. And he wasn't sure it was a good idea.

“I've never made a video even talking vaguely about politics,” he told NPR about a week after the DNC had wrapped up. “It was only when I mentioned the opportunity to my grandmother that she told me that she had gone to the DNC in 1960 as a volunteer and thought it was an amazing experience and that I should go, too.”

Hanna was one of more than 200 credentialed content creators at the Democratic convention, almost three times as many compared to those at the Republican's convention in July.

The move is part of a larger push by the Democratic Party to reach Americans who don’t consume traditional political news, which includes many younger voters, who disproportionately use TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat at higher rates compared to older generations.

The Democratic Party is banking on the support of voters under 30 this fall, and despite increases in turnout over the past few election cycles, it’s a growing generation with largely untapped electoral might.

That goal puts potential value on working with digital creators, who may have more of a direct line to new voters. However, while some influencers who attended the DNC regularly post about news, elections and voting, and likely have political audiences, others, like Hanna, do not.

Instead, Hanna’s goal, he said, was to make entertaining videos devoid of personal political views.

“That proved to