Social Media Influencers to Speak at the Democratic Convention

While they have millions of followers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, this week they will share the podium with the top tier of Democratic politics.

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The influencer Deja Foxx will speak about abortion rights on Monday at the Democratic National Convention.

A speaking slot at a national party’s nominating convention is among the most coveted prizes in American politics, offering veteran officeholders and up-and-comers alike the chance to speak to — and be seen by — an entire nation.

At the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago, five of those rare slots will go to a group that most likely would be unfamiliar to previous convention planners: social media influencers.

Convention officials said each night would include at least one influencer. The speakers are Deja Foxx, Nabela Noor, Carlos Eduardo Espina, Olivia Julianna and John Russell, a group of millennial and Gen Z influencers who, collectively, have well over 24 million social media followers.

They will speak on the same podium as President Biden; the Democratic nominees, Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota; and party luminaries, including two former presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, among others.

“This feels very affirming,” said Ms. Foxx, 24, a reproductive rights activist from Arizona who worked on Ms. Harris’s first presidential campaign. She’ll speak about abortion rights on Monday night in a program that will also feature Mr. Biden. “I don’t take it lightly that I’m speaking on the same night as the president of the United States,” she said.

ImageAmber Rose spoke on the first day of the Republican National Convention.Credit…Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

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