With less than three weeks to go until the US midterm elections, candidates are redoubling their efforts to reach out to voters — even relying on memes and sextapes to support their arguments, as evidenced by these unusual stories from this week’s campaign.
– Swifties running for Senate –
Several contestants had the same idea Friday as they tried to score cool points by cashing in on the release of Taylor Swift’s new album, Midnights.
Ohio Senate nominee Tim Ryan, Pennsylvania governor hopeful Josh Shapiro and New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman posted the album cover template on social media, adding their own images for the megastars and captions enter their political platforms where the tracking lists appear on the original.
And Senator Mark Warner tweeted Thursday, “I wonder if any of @taylorswift13’s tracks tonight will be about privacy…that’s certainly a topic that’s keeping me up at midnight.”
The singer, who sometimes called herself “Miss Americana,” commented on the state of US politics in a lyric to the Midnights song “Anti-Hero”: “Have you heard my covert narcissism lightly disguised as altruism? some kind of congressman?”
– Meme Archive –
John Fetterman, the 6ft 8in, tattooed, hooded Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, recently created the Fettermemes – a site dedicated to memes designed to humorously ridicule his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz.
The platform acts as a library of sorts, archiving videos of the TV star surgeon divided into categories like “Bad Policies”, “Scam”, “Weird”, “Out of Touch” – and one simply called “LOL”.
Under each section is a compilation of clips of Oz in TV interviews, hosting his own show, speaking at events and even dancing and eating a slice of watermelon.
Website visitors can download the videos – or photos, which are also linked on the site – and use them to create their own memes.
– Campaign sextape –
Mike Itkis, an independent candidate for Congress in New York’s 12th district, caused a stir after posting a censored sextape to showcase his “sex-positive approach”.
Its campaign platform includes a call: “Make sexual rights explicit – DO NOT rely on privacy or the right to free speech.”
The US Army Reserve Officer stars alongside adult video star Nicole Sage in a 13-minute video titled Bucket List Bonanza that was posted on a popular porn site.
Itkis’ website also proclaims that he is “not married. No children. Not celibate. Atheist.” and less vividly lists his campaigning platforms on sexuality, including legalizing sex work and “redefining the abortion debate as a right to unplanned sex.”
– “Missy Elliott Day” –
In Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared October 17 a special state holiday dedicated to rapper Missy Elliott.
Best known for her early 2000s songs like “Work It” and “Get Ur Freak On,” the rapper is originally from the eastern US city of Portsmouth.
“A native Virginian, she has inspired young women across the Commonwealth and beyond to pursue careers in art and music,” Youngkin said on Twitter. “She is the American Dream!”
