The Future of Fandom for Democrats
Injecting fandom back into our digital programs might be exactly what we need as a party.
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Hi everyone – I’m Arlie Shugaar, a long-time FWIW reader, and guest author for today’s edition. I worked on the Harris campaign last year running the KamalaHQ rapid response video program, and I now work as the Digital Rapid Response Director running the Democratic National Committee's rapid account, FactPost.
For today’s FWIW, I want to offer my thoughts on using fan edits — those hyper-filtered, crazy, overstimulating videos on your algorithm — to generate excitement for Democrats online.
More below, but first…
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Matching the online energy
Last July, I found myself in a unique situation. I was working as the head of produced video for KamalaHQ, and when Kamala Harris moved to the top of the ticket, there was an explosion of organic energy online. I needed to challenge myself to find a format that matched that energy. So when creators started making fancams of Vice President Harris, the opportunity felt ripe for the campaign to join in — so I downloaded CapCut and began to teach myself how to emulate the edits I liked online.
You’ve seen fancams before, maybe of LeBron James or the hottest K-pop band of the season. They’re typically videos under 30 seconds using popular songs and clips of a certain character/celebrity. Their reach has expanded into all corners of the internet. You can fancam quite literally anything (even the Atlantic Ocean).
One of the first fancams I made was a recap of Harris’ first rally, which starts with one of the many one-liners Kamala Harris is now known for, followed by a series of iPhone clips from her rally. They quickly became a top performing video format for our account. By the end of the campaign, the format was so well known for our program that our fancams were even parodied on SNL. Our comments sections were full of users in disbelief that an official campaign account was speaking the language of fan edits.
I made fancams into a rapid-response staple for our team. I’d pre-select a song that fit the moment, make all the cuts ahead of time with a dummy video, and then slot in the real footage as the event was happening.
Speaking the language of fandom
Now, in edit culture, the better an edit is, and the more it speaks the language of fan edits, the more heavily it’s rewarded with likes and shares. Typically, there’s one ultimate edit that wins out among the others. For example: this recently popular Creed edit is known as “the Creed edit” with 177 million views (For context, the White House’s last TikTok got 13k views).
My goal was to get one video into the bloodstream during the course of the campaign that would be referred to as “THE ___ edit.” For our purposes, this was less about the crowning honors and more about optimizing TikTok search results in our favor. I accomplished that with this Obama edit. The video starts with former President Obama explaining how Trump’s economy in his first term had benefited from the groundwork of his own administration.
The edit ended up being the #4 top performing post of all time on KHQ, gaining over 23M views and 5M likes. Even though economic policy is a less glamorous issue, we approached it in a way that people were actually willing to watch, and it paid off.
So, what now?
The proliferation of fan edits also rewards strong leadership in elected officials. There have been hundreds of edits created of Gavin Newsom, following his recent rise in popularity, as well as of Zohran Mamdani and other leaders that have cultivated a genuine excitement in the party. Some elected officials have even capitalized on the fan edits themselves, creating versions on their own official accounts.
Even without having a fancam editor on staff, campaigns can still make fancams more accessible for independent editors to engage with. Oftentimes, there are accounts dedicated to creating “scenepacks,” or stringouts of clips of TV shows/movies. The Biden-Harris White House would post something similar on their YouTube: a monthly look back with lots of easily accessible footage for anyone to use.
Looking ahead to the 2026 cycle and beyond, campaigns and elected officials would benefit from proactively curating scenepacks for supporters to create their own fancam content — amplifying organic engagement and driving enthusiasm across digital platforms.
Trump has successfully built a cult of personality, not just around himself, but around a surrounding cast of characters. That has allowed him to thrive in today’s attention economy. Democrats have yet to fully tap into the energy forming around some of our elected officials. Internet culture is fundamentally driven by fan communities, and the fact that we’re already seeing high performing organic political edits shows there’s real appetite. Many artists and influencers pay for that kind of engagement. Campaigns should be leveraging it.
Fan edits have the power to change public opinion, speaking to voters in a familiar format on a massive scale without using any words at all.
Here’s what I recommend:
Fandoms are communities that last for a reason. Learn from their tactics.
Feed your creator community. Make it as easy as possible for folks to create content for you.
Well produced videos don’t necessarily mean polished videos.
We need the spirit of fandom back in the party. Now I’m not saying fan edits alone can effect this change, but they are a powerful tool to convey both message and personality online.
Catalist’s new digital audiences help you reach the right voters, faster! Access 130+ progressive segments wherever you place ad buys with high match rates, emails + phones included. Activate via DSPolitical, LiveRamp, OpenX & more.
Email: digital@catalist.us or explore the segments here.
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