Mikie Sherrill sponsored the TikTok ban. Now she’s on the app. Here’s why.
Sherrill has appeared with influencers and YouTubers and did an AMA on Reddit for her campaign for N.J. gov.
U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill sponsored the TikTok ban bill. Now she’s on the app for her campaign for New Jersey governor.
Sherrill has stood out among the candidates in the crowded Democratic primary for teaming up with influencers and content creators on Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, and even Substack. She also hosted an “Ask me anything” session on Reddit. But it wasn’t until recently that she got on TikTok herself.
“Our campaign has been resisting getting on TikTok for a long time — we need to do more to regulate the powerful algorithms that feed off our attention and fuel a loneliness epidemic,” she said in a post on X on Wednesday.
“But it’s important to me to meet people where they are and share updates from the campaign trail and more about our plans for New Jersey (including online safety!), so please follow along,” she added.
Sherrill was one of the original cosponsors of the bill known as the TikTok ban, which led to the law requiring ByteDance to sell the app or for it to be banned. Sherrill’s campaign uses her TikTok on a separate device than those with other campaign accounts, according to her campaign, and her government office does not have a TikTok.
» READ MORE: Why the Democratic nominee for N.J. governor might only get 20% of the vote
‘I think she needs to be there’
John Walsh, chair of the Belmar Democrats who supports Sherrill, happens to be TikTok famous for his impersonations of President Donald Trump. Walsh posted a TikTok with Sherrill back in February where the two joked about renaming bodies of water in New Jersey after Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Sherrill joked about adding sharks to Shark River, calling it a “fun, sexy idea,” before speaking about protecting flood-prone areas of the state.
Walsh has more than 1 million followers on TikTok. His video with Sherrill garnered 9,500 views. He said he gets more views when he’s dressed up as Trump, but he expects people to find the video as the June 10 primary date nears.
“None of my friends know who any of these candidates are, so they’re going to be looking into these candidates in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “And if my video pops up on their page when they’re searching in the TikTok bar, you know, hopefully … it would show her in a positive, fun light.”
Walsh said he encouraged Sherrill’s campaign to get on the app despite her reputation trying to ban the app, which he said was not “my favorite.”
“I think she needs to be there,” Walsh said. “I think they all need to be there.”
Sherrill has also appeared with New Jersey influencers on Instagram. She did a bagel tasting and answered New Jersey pop-culture questions with “You Don’t Know Jersey,” an account with almost 37,000 followers.
Her campaign website has an option to sign up to become an “online ambassador,” which is a program that trains Sherrill supporters to talk about her campaign. The campaign regularly updates these ambassadors with highlights from the trail and social media posts to share.
Some creators have posted about attending a Sherrill campaign event or spoke about her campaign, like kaelynandveronica, which has 63,500 TikTok followers; bobbyzworld90, who has almost 60,000 TikTok followers, and Sakoyah, who has close to 17,000 Instagram followers.
Hellicity_Merriman, who has 194,000 Instagram followers, posted screenshots of a text thread with Sherrill in which they chatted about politics and also which American Girl doll she is.
Chris Geth, a comedian and podcaster who lives in her district, hosted Sherrill on a 20-minute Instagram live in January. She also went on camera for 20 minutes for Strict Scrutiny podcaster Leah Litman’s Instagram live in February, and Jennifer Rubin’s The Contrarian Substack in March.
“I like how you named this show after my youngest daughter,” Sherrill quipped on Rubin’s show.
Sherrill has also been on several podcasts, a medium other candidates have embraced, like those of YouTubers Jesse Dollemore, who has more than 1 million subscribers, and I’ve Had It, which has 837,000 subscribers.
Sherrill’s new TikTok has 815 followers and 2,315 likes across five videos as of Friday, when her account was two days old.
How other candidates are using TikTok
Two other candidates in the Democratic primary are on TikTok, albeit in different ways.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s campaign first started posting on TikTok in December, but he has not worked with influencers. His intern Safa Mostafa, a senior at New Jersey City University, makes appearances on the account speaking into a microphone attached to a hair pick.
The account has 568 followers and 6,045 likes across several videos, which is a smaller reach than the campaign’s other social media.
Sean Spiller, the president of the New Jersey Education Association public school teacher’s union, can also be found on TikTok. That’s largely because of Working New Jersey, the multimillion-dollar super PAC supporting his campaign with public school teachers’ union dues. Working New Jersey has been posting videos on TikTok since late October and only has 70 followers. The super PAC also pays influencers to post content to promote Spiller in videos on Instagram that are labeled as sponsored.
A spokesperson for the PAC called the paid influencers “digital doorknockers” in a statement to Politico.
The other candidates in the gubernatorial Democratic primary — Josh Gottheimer, who was also an original sponsor on the TikTok ban bill, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, and former State Sen. Steve Sweeney — are all not on TikTok.