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WINDY CITY TIMES
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Talkin' Tech: Ocasio-Cortez first in Congress to use Twitch platform to 'get out the vote'
2020-10-23
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This article shared 5050 times since Fri Oct 23, 2020
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In what is a first, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the Twitch streaming platform for gamers to encourage gamers to help her 'get out the vote' before the Nov. 3 elections. She played the game Among Us while talking to gamers who could also play the game during the discussion. Twitch gurus called it their third largest streaming event to date. More than 400,000 gamers participated in the event with Ocasio-Cortez, essentially making her event the largest attendance for any election rally in history.
Ocasio-Cortez (also known as AOC) began the stream by encouraging people to vote for the Democratic Party. "Of course, we are here to vote Blue, I'm here, to let you all know," she said.
AOC sent out a tweet a few hours before the event asking if anyone wanted to play with her, saying Among Us looked like "lots of fun." The Twitter world started retweeting her post; within minutes, she had tens of thousands of retweets. An hour after her initial tweet she held true to her word and started setting up the game. Later that day right before 9pm est she started her Twitch feed, with 119,000 chatting—a number that quickly grew to 439,000.
While her rally method is unheard of by most politicians, she might be the only current politician to be successful at this type of streaming rally. Most gamers agreed that it would not be genuine for anyone over 70 to participate in a rally of that nature. The stream lasted more than three hours, which would have left older politicians unable to keep up. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also joined the stream; at a spry 38 years old, fit right in with the younger crowd.
Typical Gen-Z gamers would be hard pressed to listen to anything either presidential candidate had to say, but praised AOC for being genuine and enjoying the game. Both campaigns have tried the Twitch platform before, but without having near the success that Ocasio did with this event. AOC has 9 million followers on Twitter while former President Barack Obama leads Twitter with 124 million followers. Twitter's own account has 59 million followers. |
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This article shared 5050 times since Fri Oct 23, 2020
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