The House Dems who keep using TikTok while voting against it

To TikTok, or not?

For Democrats running in 2024, that question is getting a lot more politically risky.

As the ultra-popular app has come under bipartisan attack in Washington for national security concerns — with the House voting overwhelmingly to force a sale or ban it entirely — it has put many Democrats in a bind: how to use it to reach the young voters who love the app while also appearing strong against potential national security threats from China.

More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers in the House who voted for the TikTok bill last month also have TikTok accounts, according to a detailed count by POLITICO — as does the campaign of President Joe Biden, who has said he’d sign a bill to ban the app if it passes the Senate.

Though navigating social media has been tricky ground for politicians for years, TikTok represents an especially acute challenge. As it becomes a more popular campaign outreach tool, with a dedicated user base of 170 million Americans, it’s becoming more politically toxic in Washington.

“We are certainly trying to figure out that balance of it being a very real national security risk with it being a place where you can reach constituents,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), one of the Democrats who voted for the TikTok bill and is on the app.

Casten has been active on TikTok since 2021 but hasn’t posted since the House vote on March 13, and his spokesperson said he’s considering whether to use the app moving forward.

“People want to have one legislative front and not look weak on that, but then also know it's an essential platform,” said Kasey O’Brien, a social media director at digital firm Middle Seat, which has worked with Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s campaign and other Democratic campaigns on TikTok.

Republicans have largely avoided TikTok, because of its associations with China. No GOP House members have active accounts on the service. But Democrats, attracted by a user base that skews young and liberal, have embraced it more widely.

Biden’s campaign defended his use of TikTok, which he joined in February, by saying he’s using it to reach voters in a “more fragmented and personalized” media environment. The campaign declined to comment on the optics of the president’s campaign using the app while he’s said he’d sign the bill forcing a sale over security concerns.

A campaign adviser said staffers are taking “advanced safety precautions,” including using the app on non-government-issued phones. The adviser said their actions are separate from an ongoing national security review of TikTok by the Biden administration.

Democratic strategists don’t see any hypocrisy in being on TikTok to reach voters while also supporting efforts to regulate the app.

“Any candidate who wants to communicate with voters on the platform should have a TikTok. And I don’t believe it to be hypocritical to then want to regulate TikTok to keep Americans safe,” said Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, founder and CEO of digital firm Authentic.

The app has also become a political and economic force to reckon with — hosting more than 7 million small businesses. According to the Pew Research Center, TikTok is now the leading news source for Americans, and has surpassed Google as a top search engine for Gen Z users, behind Instagram.

POLITICO found more than a dozen House lawmakers who voted for the bill and had TikTok accounts, though not all were active or verified. The eight Democrats with active and verified TikTok accounts are Reps. Casten, Jeff Jackson of North Carolina, Adam Schiff of California, Colin Allred of Texas, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, Greg Landsman of Ohio and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. (The accounts for Schiff, Allred and Slotkin are for their current Senate campaign races.)

Several of the lawmakers on TikTok — including Jackson, Allred, Schiff, Slotkin and Landsman — said they don’t want to ban the app outright, but rather voted for the bill to force its parent company to find a new owner to protect Americans’ data security.

The loyalty of TikTok users also exposes many Democrats to another risk: alienating exactly the Gen Z voters they’re trying to court with their TikTok accounts.

“I think it’s deeply hypocritical,” said Raven Schwam-Curtis, 25, a Gen Z TikTok creator who has also worked with Democratic PAC Priorities USA. “If you're using the mechanism, then you clearly see the value in it. So why would you entertain legislation that could jeopardize it?”

Jackson, for instance, built one of the largest TikTok followings among politicians with his face-to-camera videos demystifying the inner workings of Congress, making videos describing “fake anger” of politicians.

In his typical explanatory style, Jackson made a TikTok video describing the national security threats posed by the app but assured followers that he didn’t think it would actually be banned. “TikTok may be sold to another company, but it will continue to operate.”

But his 2.3 million followers weren’t having it. They vilified him for voting for the bill — causing him to lose as many as 100,000 followers that week. He deleted his TikTok video, but a version remains on X. He then posted an apology video on TikTok, saying he “did not handle the situation well from top to bottom.”

Jackson’s team did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Despite the blowback, all these lawmakers are sticking with the app. That’s because it’s still an essential way to reach voters, said Nellis, whose clients include the campaigns of Schiff and Jackson.

“Every member of Congress who is running in a serious election that's going to be close in November should have a TikTok account. And I don’t believe it to be hypocritical to then want to regulate TikTok to keep Americans safe,” he said.

Democratic strategists interviewed for this story told POLITICO it was largely worth the political risks for now, given TikTok’s power to reach Gen Z voters, expected to be a key demographic this fall.

“It drives news and trends. It's becoming a dominant search engine in its own right. Until those things change, it remains a necessary part of any campaign’s communications strategy,” said Brian Krebs, a senior vice president at digital firm Precision Strategies which works with Democratic House members with TikTok accounts.

Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist and director of Democratic PAC Lone Star Project in Texas, said he doesn’t see a conflict with using TikTok on the campaign trail.

“Why should Democrats not use a tool that is legal and available to every other candidate? The fact that they want to reform it or to change it to make it more secure generally shouldn't prohibit them from using it appropriately,” Angle said.

Among Republicans, most presidential campaigns stayed away, with the exemption of Vivek Ramaswamy.

“The chances that Republicans were going to join TikTok and try and campaign there have gotten even smaller as a result of this legislation,” said Eric Wilson, a managing partner at GOP investment fund StartUp Caucus.

He said the one curveball would be if former President Donald Trump joined the app, which he indicated support for recently — a major reversal from a failed effort in 2020 to ban the app.

“That would kind of create a permission structure for Republicans, but I just don't think you're gonna see a big push this election,” Wilson said. He called it a “missed opportunity” for Republicans, “because we're just so desperate to get people's attention and eyeballs these days.”

Democratic strategists say that on the off chance that TikTok really goes offline in the next six months before the election — if Congress passes the bill, and the app shuts down because it fails to find a buyer — then they’re also considering Plan B.

"I've told my clients to be prepared for anything. We certainly are. We'll pivot if needed. The best thing about digital is you get to keep your head on a swivel,” Nellis said.