Walz, AOC to play Madden on Twitch in an appeal to young men
Vice President Harris's running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y) are set to play Madden NFL together on the live-streaming platform Twitch on Sunday.
The announcement comes as the Harris campaign seeks to court young male voters, a voting bloc that former President Trump seems to be leading with in the polls.
The Harvard Institute of Politics youth poll found that the gender gap among youth supporters of Harris and Trump more than doubled since the spring, growing from 8 percentage points in the spring, when President Biden was the Democratic nominee, to 20 points now, with Harris as the party’s candidate.
Polling has also shown the Democratic nominee trailing behind Trump among male voters in key swing states.
A CNN/SSRS poll from September showed Trump leading Harris among likely male voters in Pennsylvania by 15 points — 55 percent to 40 percent — and Harris leading Trump among female voters in the state by 11 points — 53 percent to 42 percent.
The survey of likely voters in Nevada showed Trump with an 18-point lead among male voters, 57 percent to 39 percent, while Harris had a 16-point lead among female voters, 55 percent to 39 percent.
The campaign has used Twitch to attract younger voters in the past, even using the platform, along with TikTok, YouTube and more than a dozen digital services, to stream the Democratic National Convention in August.
This announcement also comes amid a series of ads on Yahoo Sports and DraftKings — platforms with predominantly male audiences — launched by the Harris campaign last week specifically aimed at winning over young male voters.
Earlier this month, some Democrats expressed worry that Harris is struggling to engage men in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
“She has a problem with men for the same reason Hillary Clinton did: because misogyny exists, as do outdated ideas about who should hold the presidency,” Democratic strategist Christy Setzer told The Hill earlier this month. “Meanwhile, Trump has doubled down on this ‘strongman’ machismo and dictator’s act, playing ‘It’s a Man’s World’ at his rallies.”
Clinton lost the male vote to Trump in 2016 by 11 points, 41 percent to 52 percent, while she won the female vote by 13 points, 54 percent to 41 percent.