The 2028 presidential primaries are already unfolding on YouTube.
Amid the rapid decline of cable news, potential candidates and other elected officials are locked in a digital arms race to draw subscribers, boost their reach and build what amounts to their own broadcast networks.
Potential candidates like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are closing in on audiences that rival or surpass total cable primetime viewers for individual networks. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is racking up millions of views. Vivek Ramaswamy, the former 2024 GOP presidential candidate who is running for Ohio governor, dwarfs any other Republican but President Donald Trump on YouTube with more than 813,000 subscribers. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s channel started the year with just 28,000 subscribers, and now has 177,000, having generated nearly 10 million views and accumulated 500,000 hours of viewing time so far this year, according to a spokesperson. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear saw a 448 percent increase in views from last year to this year, a spokesperson tells POLITICO.
Taken together, it signals the arrival of a fast-changing attention economy that has scrambled what effective political communication looks like. The 2028 cycle has the potential to be the first post-cable TV election, heralding the dawn of a post-literate era in which technology fully displaces reading and consumption of news from traditional outlets.
“I think there are a lot of elected officials and their staff who are realizing that their viewers are not necessarily just on cable news, and if they want to reach more people, more diverse audiences, they really have to diversify where they’re talking,” said Emily Keller, a former Democratic National Committee social media director who now works with Democratic officials as a strategic partner manager for YouTube.
In this, Buttigieg’s thinking is instructive. In the past, his team turned to YouTube mainly to share clips from his media appearances. Their thinking is different now. “Looking ahead, we see the channel evolving into a destination of its own,” Chris Meagher, a Buttigieg spokesperson, told POLITICO. Meagher went on to describe the platform as “a place for Pete to connect in a direct and unfiltered way with millions of Americans.” (One example: Buttigieg recently spoke to a rural health care provider about the impact of President Donald Trump’s budget cuts.)
The landscape has fundamentally changed since 2016, which some political observers memorably (and incorrectly) predicted would be the “Meerkat election.” That was a passing fad. But the switch to YouTube has staying power.
Just last week, YouTube hosted what it trumpeted as its “first-ever exclusive, global broadcast of an NFL game.” C-SPAN has landed there, too. Young men and disaffected voters are also flocking to the platform for their news.
“YouTube by far represents the broadest reach potential of any platform, especially among younger audiences and disengaged voters,” Meagher told POLITICO.
YouTube says this is a boom time for politicians on the platform. “We’re seeing really significant growth in ways that I would not expect in an off year,” said Carly Eason, a former Republican National Committee official who works as Keller’s counterpart, focusing on YouTube’s outreach to GOP figures. “As they really invest in their channels, work on their channels, and follow a lot of YouTube best practices, they’re really reaping the rewards.”
YouTube views are surging among both Republicans and Democrats. “Verdict with Ted Cruz” has some 331,000 subscribers. His top video — an interview with Elon Musk— has garnered 1.2 million views. “This Is Gavin Newsom,” hosted by the California governor, has 187,000 subscribers. Beshear, the Kentucky governor, has a series of videos called “Andy Unplugged: The Lighter Side of Leadership,” in which he has taken on the drive-thru at Wonder Whip, shown off Churchill Downs and watched the 2024 solar eclipse.
Other political leaders have taken a different approach to YouTube’s rising influence, primarily focusing on outreach to existing creators on the platform. Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) recent push to improve child safety on Roblox, the online gaming platform, garnered more than 50 million views across 18 videos on other creators’ channels, said Marie Baldassarre, Khanna’s senior communications adviser.
That’s a deliberate choice.
“Our strategy with influencers, right-wing creators and non-political voices is reaching hundreds of thousands of first-time voters and letting them know that Democrats aren’t so bad after all,” Baldassarre told POLITICO.
It’s not just potential 2028 candidates who are flocking to the platform.
More broadly, politicians are recognizing they need to build their own audiences. At 92, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — who, decades ago, was the first senator to adopt the fax machine — is kicking the tires on doing more podcasts, Eason said.
Few Democrats have done so well on YouTube as Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). He began the year with 24,000 subscribers and now has nearly half a million. His straight-to-the-camera videos perform well.
“The nice thing about building up a following on YouTube is that it puts my content in front of people who aren’t necessarily looking for it,” Schiff told POLITICO in an interview.
Not long ago, amid his YouTube experiment earlier this year, Schiff said a waiter at a restaurant complimented him on his “show.” He thought the person must’ve been referring to an appearance on MSNBC or another media hit. He thanked the man and then pressed further.
“He looked at me somewhat surprised, and he said, ‘Your show on YouTube,’” Schiff said. “And I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve got a show.’ And now you know that we’re closing in on 500,000 subscribers, that really is like the following of a cable news show.”
Schiff said his party still has work to do in checking Republicans’ rise on alternative platforms.
“We as a party still have a lot more catching up to do in the digital realm, both in terms of the different platforms, but also with digital and social media influencers,” Schiff said.
“The best time for Democrats to care about YouTube was 2018,” Stefan Smith, a Democratic digital strategist, told POLITICO. “The second-best time is now.”
Jessica Piper contributed to this report.
Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO’s Playbook newsletter.
