TikTok politics: Candidates turn to it 'for better or worse'

Wade Herring didn’t know the teenage voter who approached him at a restaurant over the weekend. But she knew Herring, a Democrat running for Congress in Georgia, from his campaign videos on TikTok.

To Herring, a 63-year-old Savannah attorney, it was proof of TikTok’s precision-guided ability to reach young voters — the very reason why he and candidates from both parties have eagerly embraced the platform ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

“A year and a half ago, I thought it was just dancing videos,” Herring said of TikTok. Young voters, he added, “aren’t watching CNN, or MSNBC or Fox. They’re getting their information on TikTok, and for better or worse, it’s the way to reach them.”