The TikTok Election
These are the moments, sounds, strategies, and videos that defined the 2024 election on TikTok.
Our goal when we launched this pop-up newsletter was to provide data and analysis to help readers understand the vibes on TikTok - measuring the conversations about the candidates, the content that was popping off, and the messages that the media may be missing.
Since we launched back in July, it has been a wild ride, both online and IRL. From Donald Trump’s assassination attempt(s) to his stunt at McDonald’s, from Kamala Harris owning the debate to introducing Coach Walz to the world via TimTok, it’s been a privilege to chronicle this insane time in American history with you.
Reflecting on our analysis and data from the last several months, as we’ve reported on consistently throughout, Trump dominated the conversation – just like he seems to dominate every conversation – but typically was not always seen in the best light. He had his many, many supporters on TikTok for sure. But, week in and week out, we regularly found his sentiment score far underwater.
However, loved or hated, the Trump campaign definitely found a way to be relevant on the platform. Months ago, we openly wondered why @realdonaldtrump posted so rarely, despite racking up massive numbers with every post. By rolling out @teamtrump in the final months of the campaign, they found a way to post often and flood the zone with videos that regularly racked up tens of millions of views. By Election Day, some of their primary account metrics - followers, views, etc - surpassed those of the Harris campaign.
By contrast, as readers will remember, Team Harris took the opposite approach, starting with their @kamalahq account and ultimately adding in @kamalaharris with its more personal and official voice.
This campaign will continue to be studied for years to come – by us and by many, many others, we’re sure. We hope we did our part to help you better make sense of it as it unfolded in real-time on TikTok.
It’s been an honor to be welcomed into your inbox every week for the last five months.
Thank you.
Everyone was talking about Trump
Since mid-August, we have used Zelf to track how many total videos and posts on TikTok mentioned either candidate. Week after week, we saw users create tens of thousands more posts about Donald Trump than Kamala Harris.
According to Zelf, from mid-August through Election Day, there were around 1.2 million posts on TikTok that mentioned Donald Trump in some way. By comparison, only ~400,000 posts mentioned Harris.
The vibes were generally better for Harris
While Trump had far more total mentions than Harris, we continue to maintain that much more of the top-performing content about him on TikTok was negative or unfavorable to his candidacy. However, towards the end of the campaign, especially at the crucial point of late October, positive content about the former President increased, causing this overall positive sentiment to trend upward. That’s due in large part to viral posts from the @teamtrump account, which we’ll get into more below.
Methodology for the above chart: Social analytics platform Zelf measures the overall sentiment of several thousand top-performing posts that are favorable or unfavorable to Harris and Trump. Deploying a mix of AI scraping, sentiment analysis, and manual crosschecks, Zelf determines which posts are considered favorable, unfavorable, or neutral to the two candidates.
Top posts mentioning Kamala Harris
These were some of the most viewed posts mentioning Kamala Harris since our tracking began in July:
The top post mentioning Harris from this period (which encompasses Harris’s entire time as the Democratic nominee) came from @msnbc talking about the now infamous Ann Selzer Iowa poll. It got 5 million likes and almost 80 million views.
Of the other top posts about VP Harris, there were several videos about debate interactions, including this one from @nbcnews with over 55 million views and 4.7 million likes, where Harris tells Trump she’s a gun owner. @nowthisimpact also had a top post with a video of Harris sharing her favorite curse word that got almost 46 million views.
Notably, two of the top ten videos mentioning VP Harris were actually of Donald Trump speaking directly to her. In one video from @dailymail with almost 40 million views, he’s speaking to a crowd about how awful she is and telling her she’s fired. In another, from @livefoxnow with 51.7 million views, he’s wishing her a happy birthday while “working” at McDonald’s.
Surprisingly, the Trump campaign itself only made the list once. @teamtrump shared a video of troops watching the debate and “fact-checking” the VP. It got 37.9 million views.
Top posts mentioning Donald Trump
These were some of the most viewed posts mentioning Donald Trump since our tracking began in July:
When it comes to top posts mentioning Trump over the past three or so months, @dailymail, which has dominated political TikTok this cycle, made the list three times. This post of Donald Trump saying the best way to stop depression is to work your ass off was viewed 83.7 million times and got 5.8 million likes. The other two from them were both assassination-related. This one, showing how close he came to being shot, got 71.4 million views and 2.7 million likes, and this one showing the “strange behavior” of a woman in the crowd during the shooting got 73.1 million views and 2.8 million likes.
In addition to @dailymail, @cbsnews also had a top post mentioning Trump with a video of Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter Kai speaking at the RNC which received over 63 million views, and @msnbc had one with 78.7 million views talking about the Ann Selzer Iowa poll that we mentioned above (which, of course, showed Harris flipping Iowa to win it and did not come to pass on Election Night).
Interestingly, this fun, apolitical post from @tyleredits97 shows what Donald Trump would look like if he had a perfect side profile was also amongst the top ones mentioning Trump with almost 80 million views – perhaps an indicator that Trump was able to capture non-political Americans much more seamlessly than VP Harris.
The most viral posts from the campaigns
Here’s how many total views each campaign’s videos have received since the start of the campaign:
And here’s how many views the campaigns have received on their owned content week over week:
The Harris campaign’s top 5 most viewed TikTok posts of the cycle were:
“Thank you America.” Harris accepting the nomination at the DNC. 88.9 million views, 12 million likes
“It’s time to turn the page.” A closing message shared on the eve of the election. 67.1 million views and 11.1 million likes.
femininomenon. An early classic. 59.6 million views, 7.7 million likes.
“Ain’t no lie” with Lance Bass. 57.5 million views, 4.8 million likes.
“If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.” Harris taunting Trump for refusing a second debate. 38.7 million views, 5.7 million likes.
The Trump campaign’s top 5 most viewed TikTok posts of the cycle were:
“Today we Save America.” An Election Day call to vote. 153.7 million views, 13.4 million likes.
“LOCKED IN.” “2 days until we fire Kamala.” 93.5 million views, 6.7 million likes.
Kamala The Grinch Hates Christmas. Donald Trump will protect Christmas. 90.7 million views, 9.2 million likes.
We love you Corey Comperatore. 79.1 million views, 982.7K likes.
Trump working the fryer. “I could do this all day… I like this job.” 68.8 million views, 7.6 million likes.
Important post-election reads:
The Information: How TikTok courted conservatives before Trump’s win
New York Times: Trump Raises TikTok’s Hopes for a Rescue in the United States
Thanks again for reading.
The #FYP newsletter is a product of FWIW and produced by Josh Klemons, Kyle Tharp, and Lucy Ritzmann. Most data included in this newsletter is provided by Zelf, an AI-powered social analytics platform.
You all still here?I am an experienced organizer and I have a permit for a protest at Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Sunday 10/12 from 10A to 6P. I would ask you to adopt this as your own. It is called the Internet's October Surprise and it is an attempt to get the powerful anti-Trump community online to step out into the world, to see each other and make a noise that everyone in the White House will hear. If I can get an e-mail address for any of you I can send the actual invitation. More info at https://torpedotrump.com/surprise. In all cultures and all epochs the way tyrants are toppled is by people showing up in the capital with their bodies to demand change. Nothing else has ever worked. Please help me with this. David Lytel david@torpedotrump.com 771-717-0801
Thanks for the balls and strikes calls on TikTok. It seems like Harris' online strategy had some good calls. Since you are a referee of these matters, who struck out? Or did the score of the game, with Harris losing, tell the complete story?