LOS ANGELES – At an Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown last week, California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer (D) fielded questions in front of a crowd of raised iPhones — about fire risk and reduction, the impact of AI on jobs, and Medicaid and Medicare cuts.
But this was not a press conference, nor a typical rally or campaign stop. It was an invitation-only event for a couple dozen creators, the majority of whom are focused on political content, who each have five to six figure followings. After they asked their questions, the creators posed in a photobooth for pictures with the candidate and held up their phones for selfies. While waiting for one-on-one time to interview Steyer, some creators debated whether they would endorse a campaign or if they consider themselves journalists over margaritas. Others filmed stand-ups using a ring light in front of a pink, red and orange campaign-branded backdrop.
The event was organized by the candidate’s niece Carly Steyer, who oversees “creator relations” for the campaign, with the goal of building relationships with creators skeptical of the campaign. “Sometimes, we get wonky in politics,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, who managed the Biden-turned-Harris campaign and attended the event as an advisor to the Steyer campaign. “Creators are a way to break down the wonk and make sure that it's relatable to real people.”
The scene ahead of California's crowded primary election in early June provides a preview of the outsized impact creators will have on the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election. Campaigns have incorporated creators into their approach — not just to deliver messaging or in a promotional role, but as key surrogates and strategists — at a time when voters increasingly get political news from social media.
The Steyer campaign brought on Carlos Eduardo Espina as an advisor for Latino Digital Mobilization, marking one of the first times a creator has been brought on in such a capacity and not just tapped for endorsement. And down ballot, one of the leading candidates in the LA mayoral race, Republican former reality TV star Spencer Pratt is a creator himself – a master of evolution to maintain online relevancy, from The Hills to Snapchat stardom to crystal and hummingbird TikToks, to his entry into politics after becoming an outspoken political voice online after wildfires destroyed his home.
And on an even more meaningful level, the gubernatorial race itself was upended after political creators helped bring to light allegations of sexual misconduct against Rep. Eric Swalwell (D), leading to him ending his campaign and resigning from Congress.
The California elections also reveal how much creators' roles in politics have evolved since 2024, when they were given photo-line access and prime rally seating, but little ability to actually engage with — let alone question — candidates (who, in fairness, largely avoided questions from the press and voters as well).
Still, creators in attendance remained skeptical of the Democratic Party's broader digital strategy, viewing Steyer's outreach as an exception rather than a model and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani as the stand out nationwide. A majority of the creators in attendance at the Steyer event are also politics-first — which Democrats have identified as an area for improvement — though those political accounts are better aligned for a primary setting like this race in California than a national election.
“I think there's an improvement in terms of the scale of engagement. I don't know if there's an improvement in regards to the quality of engagement,” said Clara Cox, who works for an environmental services firm and is a creator. “A lot of engagement from politicians comes across as slightly inauthentic because they haven't taken the time to treat this as an actual media platform.”
Timisola Ogunleye, who works for a political marketing agency that works with influencers and is also a creator herself, said she worries that Democrats haven’t actually learned their lesson about working with creators since 2024 and that the party is taking credit for drawing more people in when really it’s just been Trump’s actions acting as a push factor rather than Democrats making a compelling pitch.
“Democrats really suck at planning when it comes to how they're going to utilize social media marketing to get the people on their side. I think the right is light years ahead. … .It makes it really hard for me to endorse any Democratic candidate,” she said.
“You have to build incrementally with a lot of audiences and with a lot of creators, and you want to go straight for the head? It’s going to seem forced and fake, and they’re not going to buy it,” she said. Ogunleye said it was her second time attending a Steyer creator event. Entering the first, she said she was extremely skeptical and not planning to vote for him at all. Now, she has decided to endorse him.
Tahra Hoops, a creator and the director of economic analysis at the Chamber of Progress, a pro-tech trade coalition, also said it was her second time attending a Steyer creator event and that she interviewed him for her Substack. She was critical of Democrats’ efforts to reach creators in 2024, but said she believes the party has realized they made a mistake.
“I got a creator invite today for a wonky policy event in DC. That shows me things are changing,” she said. “The game has changed so much where any candidate has to be able to do a three-hour podcast, a three-minute video, a 30-second video, and a 280-character tweet that actually sounds like you.”
Most of the creators in the room said they started as Steyer-skeptics, and credited their conversion to Carly Steyer’s outreach and the campaign’s pitch that they want creators to ask hard questions.
“I tend to think that campaigns are really transactional with creators,” Carly Steyer said in an interview. In efforts to build relationships with creators, she said she arranged private, off-the-record meetings with him — like an initial lunch with six creators, who all told her going in they didn’t expect to like him but were pleasantly surprised.
“His first impression tends to be that he's a rich white straight man, and not just a rich white straight man, but a straight, white billionaire. That is not something that feels approachable,” she added. Carly Steyer said she tries to build a relationship with the creators in a way “that might be different” from her uncle. “When I have a socialist creator come to me and say, ‘I don't believe in capitalism,’ I'm like, ‘let's have a conversation about that.’ Because honestly, me, Carly Steyer, neither do I. But does Tom? Yeah.”
Steyer said she has never told a creator that a question was off limits, but that she does view creators as different from the press despite the overlap and some creators in the room identifying themselves as press or arguing that creators serve the same role.
“It's really tricky, because a lot of creators speak with a ton of authority. A lot of times they lack research, which can be really tricky. They speak to audiences who aren't consulting other sources, and so they're elevated to this status of sort of truth and definitive truth,” she said.
Cox, who was initially skeptical of supporting Steyer but is now planning to publicly endorse him, said Carly Steyer convinced her to engage “by saying we want to bring people in who really disagree with him and who really have a lot of strong questions for him,” and that she was encouraged to ask hard questions.
As for those hard questions, several creators asked Steyer about his wealth and billionaire status. Others went the softball route. The final question a creator asked: Would Steyer join her in the photo booth?
This story is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by Washington Post Creator, a team outside The Washington Post’s newsroom that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about Washington Post Creator.
