Hawaii Politicians Turn To Social Media App TikTok To Reach Next Generation Of Leaders
Millennial lawmakers see it as a more constructive way to engage with voters and encourage new voices to emerge.
Big Island Rep. Jeanne Kapela, a 30-year-old lawmaker who grew up in the age of social media, has a vision to inspire more young women to run for office by using an unconventional method: sharing TikTok videos.
“We need a new generation of leadership,” she said. “TikTok may be one way to get us there.”
Politicians have long used social media to reach voters and raise their profiles. For instance, former President Donald Trump elevated the use of Twitter as a means of communicating his message to the world outside the avenues of the news media.
Now young legislators are turning to TikTok, the platform best known for viral dance videos. The Chinese-owned app was once so disliked by Republican leaders that Hawaii Rep. Gene Ward called it “digital fentanyl” and in 2023 on all state-owned devices.
“It used to be all about Instagram and Facebook,” said Colin Moore, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii Manoa. “But more and more candidates are testing the waters with TikTok.”
And for good reason. Pew Research earlier this year reported that TikTok stands out from other social media for growth of its user base. A third of U.S. adults said they use the video-based platform, up 12 percentage points from 2021, in a survey.
By contrast, other sites like Facebook and YouTube, which dominate social media, remained flat, Pew found.
Kapela’s not the only lawmaker looking to mobilize voters on the app.
In Kaneohe, GOP state House candidate Josiah Ubando has over 43,000 followers on . He hopes his online base will translate to votes in the general election, when he will square off against the winner of the Aug. 10 Democratic primary.
Old School Campaigning Meets New School Technology
Waikiki Rep. Adrian Tam, 33, says TikTok is different from other social media apps because it presents users with an educational experience.
“TikTok is a place for learning,” he said. “Instagram and Twitter are used for late-night doom scrolling.”
He made an account during his first term in the House to reach young voters.
One downside: making viral-worthy videos takes a lot of time, he said. So Tam has an intern to manage his social media channels, which also include and , which has been rebranded as X.
It’s all a way to reach people who increasingly get information from their mobile phones and apps instead of newspapers and televisions, he said.
“It’s important to meet voters where they’re at, and they’re on TikTok,” Tam said.
Some GOP lawmakers are using TikTok to recruit like-minded candidates to run for office.
Republican Rep. Elijah Pierick, 29, joined TikTok after seeing how popular it was among young people in his district during his 2022 run for office. Now, he asking his 800-plus TikTok followers to jump into politics. In one of his most videos, he wrote, “Please run for office. #hawaii #government #church #politics #God.”?
He says it’s made him a minor social media celebrity.
“People have started to recognize me on the street from all my videos,” he said.
And it’s not just TikTok. Pierick’s campaign has eight social media accounts in all, including Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
“Wherever the people of Hawaii are communicating and getting information, I want to be a part of the conversation,” he said.
Like Tam, Pierick has a campaign volunteer who helps manage his social accounts.
“It’s all about getting your name out there, all the time,” Pierick said.
Watch Out For Disinformation
But there’s also a downside to using apps like TikTok. The lack of oversight on social media means politicians must regulate themselves, which has led to some instances of candidates spreading disinformation.
In April, for example, Pierick where he’s shown preaching to a small congregation about a bill he said was introduced by the last year.
Last year in 2023, Governor Josh Green signed SB 1 into law. This bill expanded abortion access to minors: 14 year olds can have an abortion now. The last line of the bill’s description says that it “Amends the definition of ‘medical care and services’ so that a minor may consent to receive abortion care without any other person’s consent.” #hawaii #government #prolife #abortion #community #children #prayer
“You could choose to abort the baby outside the womb,” he says in the video. “That’s going to cause God’s judgment on our state!”
He goes on to claim the measure would have allowed new mothers to abort their babies 15 days after giving birth.
But a jumped on to the post to point out that there was no such bill.
“This guy can’t prove that proposed law ever existed. He is just making this up to scare you,” wrote , receiving three likes.
Another person said, “He is straight lying and no one cares.”
But some politicians say backlash from social media posts isn’t always bad.
For instance, Hawaii State Sen. Karl Rhoads, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he got death threats after he about Donald Trump’s lawyers arguing that Trump was immune from prosecution for his role in trying .
Sen. Karl Rhoads (D) responds to a controversial tweet he sent out on 3/18. :point_up_2::skin-tone-3: See full story on
“Trump says Presidents have total immunity,” Rhoads wrote on X. “So if Biden has Trump assassinated, that’s ok?”
Four months later, the is still up.
Kapela say backlash is now an expected part of being in politics.
“As a politician, you’re going to receive hate no matter what,” Kapela said.
