Democrats are revamping their social media strategy and testing new messaging to counter President Donald Trump‘s second-term agenda and his dominance in the news cycle.
Out of power throughout Washington, Democrats are hiring new teams, consulting with influencers, and conducting training to try to find more creative ways to break through.
The Democratic National Committee, whose social media strategy was giving fodder to Republicans for “out of touch” messaging, marked the new change on March 12.
The party updated its social media profile picture to the donkey logo and started to tighten up its messaging.
Democratic National Committee Digital Content and Creative Director Paulina Mangubat noted on X this week the change in response to a post noting the difference in the social approach.
“You’re right that there was a shift! After we posted The GraphicTM (you know the one), I hosted a weeklong strategy retreat with the full DNC social team—where we rebuilt not just our content priorities, but our mindset/approach to approvals,” she wrote.
“We received over 135M impressions across accounts during the month of March, and we’re going to do more—and better—in April and the months to come,” Mangubat continued.
She is not the only staffer from the DNC noting a vibe shift.
“I manage the supporter feedback inbox for @TheDemocrats and when I tell y’all the vibes haven’t been this good in a minute,” wrote another staffer on X. “Dems are inspired! Dems are hopeful!”
The updates come after a failed “Here’s what Democrats did in February” graphic that contained 32 bullet points of long sentences that instantly received backlash.
The post on X hit 2.6 million views. The comment section took off as hundreds of people slammed the social media team saying “no one is going to read that” or “who the f*** gets paid to do this.”
The DNC is not the only Democratic account that has received flack. Congressional Democrats pretending to be video game characters in “choose your fighter” parody videos were slammed by the right, saying they were “out of touch” and “missed the mark” with the trend.
Sammy Kanter, a Democratic consultant and influencer, noted the DNC is being transparent with the public on its changes.
The new donkey profile picture “marked a turning point of seeing where their strategy was going to go,” Kanter told the Washington Examiner. “I think that tweet was interesting of them sharing that they get feedback from every corner of the internet, which I’m glad that they’re doing social listening and seeing what some of that feedback is.”
Kanter noted the party previously kept their socials “corporate,” but now they are “experimenting with strategy.” Kanter pointed out the success of the Kamala HQ account with its “funny and relatable” nature.
In light of this sentiment, the DNC poached veterans of the Kamala HQ account in their latest effort to push rapid response, Axios reported.
The new account @FactPostNews is the latest push for the party to combat misinformation while responding to the Trump administration in an entertaining way. Those running this account are many of the same people who ran Harris’s popular social media accounts in 2024.
“I think Dems need to cut the safety rope,” Kanter continued. “This is, as per usual, unprecedented times, but I just think that sort of safety approach clearly hasn’t been working, so you might as well be yourself or say what you think.”
Cutting the safety rope and posting quick-witted responses has proven to work for the account last month, with one post in response to a Tesla Cybertruck reaching 11 million views merely noting “ugly a** truck.”
Right-wing media has thrived in taking the “cutting the safety rope” approach. From podcasts like Joe Rogan to accounts such as @libsoftiktok, these accounts amplify the punchy approach. Aside from right-wing content creators, Elon Musk’s ownership of X and whopping following of 218 million helps spread the president’s agenda.
Along with tightening up their social strategy to meet the moment and gain traction, Democrats celebrated wins across the country this week.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) broke the record Tuesday for the longest floor speech at 25 hours and four minutes where he protested Trump and Musk’s agenda to reach those in the party who feel like Democrats are not pushing back.
The senator did not eat or use the bathroom for the entirety of the speech and was only alleviated from speaking when other Democratic senators asked questions. He broke the record for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Following breaking the record, Booker appeared on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow but was also interviewed by liberal internet star Aaron Parnas, further reflecting Democrats’ new strategy of lawmakers meeting with content creators.
Another win for Democrats came when the Senate passed Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) resolution, with some GOP support, to halt Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada just mere hours after the president unveiled his “liberation day” tariffs. Although the resolution will go nowhere in the House, the passage with GOP support marked the first signs of a legislative success in pushing back against Trump’s agenda.
Perhaps the biggest win for the party this week was when Judge Susan Crawford prevailed in Wisconsin for the state Supreme Court race, cementing the liberal majority of the court after Musk poured tens of millions into this race against Crawford.
While voter turnout was small on Tuesday compared to a presidential election, more than half a million more voters turned out for this Supreme Court race than the state’s last one in 2023, indicating that voters are engaged and ready to participate.
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While the Democratic Party has a long way to go leading up to the 2026 midterm elections, social media strategy will be crucial in elections moving forward.
“I think TV is now going to the wayside in the new frontier of politics and social media and Trump dominates on social media, and so now he’s dominating the political space,” Gen Z Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) told the Washington Examiner earlier this year. “I think we’ve got to do the same thing.”