A民主党州长候选人加利福尼亚州的一位官员将会给抖音一个机会，但是有一个警告:他只会用西班牙语发布视频。
至少现在是这样。
前拜登政府卫生部长泽维尔·韦塞拉正在拥抱流行的短视频应用程序，以针对西班牙语用户。他的竞选和调查指出，西班牙裔成年人使用抖音的数量远远高于黑人和白人成年人。
国会去年通过了一项对抖音的禁令，但签署该法案使之成为法律的、当时是韦塞拉老板的乔·拜登总统在离任前宣布，他不会强制执行。在最高法院裁定该禁令符合宪法后，唐纳德·特朗普总统暂停了在他上任的第一天，给总部位于中国的字节跳动公司时间寻找新的买家。
特朗普是共和党人，在第一个任期内曾试图禁止与字节跳动打交道，但他去年加入了该平台，拥有数百万粉丝。他一再延长字节跳动寻找买家的最后期限偶尔暗示有一笔交易，但没有提供细节。白宫上个月开设了自己的抖音账户。
韦塞拉的新方法是民主党人努力对抗右倾的一部分，去年在得克萨斯州和佛罗里达州等红色州以及加利福尼亚州、新泽西州和纽约州等蓝色州都出现了右倾，川普在这些州提高了他在拉美裔人中的支持率。
这个想法是通过在政客们仍在大量试验的平台上推出内容来锁定关键用户群。特朗普政府正在逐步取消多语言服务，作为总统推动英语的一部分官方语言美利坚合众国。
新泽西州和弗吉尼亚州参加2025年选举的候选人已经调整他们的活动以吸引拉美裔人，他们可能没有参加投票，或者基于特朗普的经济承诺而投票给了他。但策略师表示，这一趋势是否会持续仍有很大争议。
韦塞拉在一份声明中说:“用选民花费时间和获得信息的语言和平台进行交流至关重要。”。
皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)2024年的一项调查得出结论，虽然抖音在短时间内出现了显著的用户增长，但人口统计数据因种族和族裔而异。据报道，将近一半的西班牙成年人使用它，相比之下，39%的黑人成年人和28%的白人成年人使用它。
韦塞拉的竞选团队表示，他们将推出一系列视频，包括他直接面对镜头的讲话、政策解释者以及竞选活动的幕后剪辑。它还计划与有影响力的人合作，并发布由支持者创作的视频。全是西班牙语。
“民主党需要赢回的拉丁裔工人阶级不一定会去西班牙语网站，但他们会在空闲时间滚动和观看垂直视频，”为竞选活动提供咨询的民主党策略师、民主党国会竞选委员会前新闻秘书何塞·穆尼奥斯(josémuoz)说。
在今年的新泽西州州长竞选中，民主党候选人Mikie Sherrill和共和党候选人Jack Ciattarelli都参加了Univision的西班牙语市政厅，西班牙裔选民将向候选人提问。在弗吉尼亚州，民主党州长候选人阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格(Abigail Spanberger)在一个广播广告中用西班牙语讲述了她是三个上公立学校的女孩的母亲。
“我知道这些日子对家庭来说有多困难，”她用西班牙语说。
韦塞拉在2026年加州州长竞选中的挑战者之一凯蒂·波特(Katie Porter)迅速确立了自己在民主党初选中的领先地位，并在抖音建立了相当大的粉丝群，拥有超过50万粉丝，而Instagram上的粉丝约为20万，脸书上的粉丝为16.4万。
在他的介绍视频中，韦塞拉说他的首要任务是让人们买得起房子，降低医疗费用。
“我是这场竞选中唯一一个会在这个讲台上用西班牙语和你说话的候选人，”他说。“但我希望这是一次双向对话。我想了解你最担心什么，你想从下一任加州州长那里得到什么。”
California Democrat turns to TikTok to reach Hispanic voters in governor's race
ADemocratic candidate for governorof California will be giving TikTok a go, but with a caveat: He'll only post videos in Spanish.
At least for now.
Former Biden administration Health SecretaryXavier Becerrais embracing the popular short-video app to target Spanish-language users. His campaign and surveys note that Hispanic adults use TikTok in much higher numbers than Black and white adults.
Congress last year passed a ban on TikTok, but President Joe Biden, who signed the bill into law and was Becerra's boss at the time, announced before leaving office that hewouldn't enforce it. After the Supreme Court ruled the ban constitutional, President Donald Trumpsuspended iton his first day in office to give the China-based company ByteDance time to find a new buyer.
Trump, a Republican, had tried to ban dealings with ByteDance during his first term, but he joined the platform last year and has millions of followers. He has repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to find a buyer andhinted occasionallythat there was a deal in place, but without offering details. The White House started its own TikTok account last month.
Becerra's new approach is part of an effort by Democrats to counter the rightward swing that was seen last year both in red states such as Texas and Florida and blue states such as California, New Jersey and New York, where Trump improved his numbers among Latinos.
The idea is to lock in a key user base by pushing out content early on a platform politicians are still largely experimenting with. The effort comes when the Trump administration is phasing out multilingual services as part of the president's push to make Englishthe official languageof the United States.
Candidates running in the 2025 elections in New Jersey and Virginia are alreadyadapting their campaignsto appeal to Hispanics, who may have stayed away from the polls or voted for Trump based on his economic promises. But strategists say that it’s still very much up for debate whether the trend will hold.
“It’s critical to communicate in the language and on the platforms where voters spend their time and get their information,” Becerra said in a statement.
A 2024 Pew Research Center survey concluded that while TikTok has seen significant user growth in a short time, the demographics were different depending on race and ethnicity. Nearly half of Hispanic adults reported using it compared with 39% of Black adults and 28% of white adults.
Becerra’s campaign says it will push out a mix of videos with him speaking directly to the camera, policy explainers and behind-the-scenes clips from the campaign trail. It also plans to collaborate with influencers and publish videos created by supporters. All in Spanish.
“The working-class Latinos Democrats need to win back aren't necessarily going to a Spanish-language website, but they are scrolling and watching vertical video in their free time,” said José Muñoz, a Democratic strategist advising the campaign and a former press secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In the New Jersey governor's race this year, both Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill and Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli are participating in Spanish-language town halls on Univision, where Hispanic voters will ask the candidates questions. In Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger speaks Spanish in a radio ad about being a mother of three girls who attended public school.
“I know how difficult things are for families these days,” she says in Spanish.
One of Becerra’s challengers in the 2026 California governor's race, Katie Porter, has quickly established herself as a leading contender in the Democratic primary and has already built a sizable following on TikTok, with more than half a million followers, compared with about 200,000 followers on Instagram and 164,000 on Facebook.
In his introduction video, Becerra says his priority is to make housing more affordable and reduce health care costs.
“I am the only candidate in this race who will speak to you in Spanish on this platform,” he said. “But I want this to be a two-way conversation. I want to learn what worries you the most and what you want from the next California governor.”
