Former President Barack Obama took to TikTok on National Voter Registration Day in an effort to try and help Vice President Kamala Harris win her bid for the White House this fall.
Obama sat down on Tuesday with at least four TikTok influencers to encourage young people to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day. Carlos Eduardo Espina, Isaac Rochell, Hellotefi, and Laron Hines boast a combined following of roughly 23 million followers on the platform.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has been criticized as being a tool for the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, but especially Republicans, have signaled the danger of the social media app remaining under control by the Asian country.
For the most part, Obama joked around with the Gen Zers. “I invented rizz. I am the rizz OG,” he laughed in one of the videos, referring to a slang term that means having charisma. It was during his most extended commentary with Espina that Obama waded into the specifics of his support for Harris as he issued a veiled attack on former President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
Espina is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave temporary legal status to some immigrants who came to the United States illegally, expanded protections from deportation, and enabled them to work in the U.S. lawfully.
@carlos_eduardo_espina Una conversación de corazón con el Presidente Obama
Obama implemented the initiative during his time in the White House and warned Tuesday that only Harris would give DACA recipients “a legal pathway to citizenship.” His comments came after Trump tried to rescind DACA as president in 2017.
Responding to Espina’s question of “How can you help to find a permanent solution” to DACA, Obama replied: “Priority No. 1 is you have to have a president who believes that we are a nation of laws and that we are a nation of immigrants.”
“One of the reasons I’m supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is because they know that this is something we need to get done,” Obama added as he expressed support for a law that would “make sure we have legal entry, but also recognizes we have people who are already living here who are making contributions, and give them a pathway to citizenship.”
Obama endorsed Harris just days after she announced her presidential candidacy. He warned the TikTok influencers that her victory this fall would “only happen if people vote.”
“Folks who are listening, if you really want to help solve this problem together for Carlos and millions of others, go to Iwillvote.com, and make sure you are registered, and make sure you vote on Election Day,” he urged.
Espina’s video with Obama had garnered over 530,000 views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Obama’s appearances on TikTok come as the Harris and Trump campaigns court young voters.
TikTok has an estimated more than 150 million monthly users in the U.S. Many of them are young people, and a significant number of them have likely never cast a vote in a presidential election.
The Harris campaign launched an initiative last month to reach 150 college campuses across 11 states, including in critical battleground states, according to an NPR report. Meanwhile, Obama’s Democratic colleague has doubled her campaign’s youth organizing staff.
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The Trump campaign ramped up its own efforts to reach young people, particularly young men who are voting for the first time.
The former president has conducted a flurry of long-form interviews with popular influencers in the past few months. Recent sit-downs with Theo Von and Adin Ross have reached millions.
