Harris targets male vote with Fortnite and Call of Duty 6 promotions – Washington Examiner
Vice President Kamala Harris is making a concerted effort to engage younger male voters as part of her campaign strategy during the final week of the 2024 election cycle. She is collaborating with popular video game franchises, including **Fortnite**, where her campaign has created a custom game level called “Freedom Town, USA.” This level includes promotional material for her campaign. Additionally, Harris recently appeared on the **Club Shay Shay** podcast, sponsored by the new video game **Call of Duty Black Ops 6**, marking a significant collaboration as the episode featured an advertisement promoting voter participation.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who is her running mate, is also participating in the outreach by streaming video games like **Madden NFL** and **Crazy Taxi** on Twitch alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This strategy of targeting younger voters through gaming is not new; past Democratic campaigns have similarly utilized games to promote voter engagement, with notable examples including Joe Biden using **Animal Crossing** for campaign promotion and Barack Obama’s ads in racing games. Harris’s approach highlights an innovative way to connect with a younger demographic through entertainment media.
Harris targets male vote with Fortnite and Call of Duty 6 promotions
Vice President Kamala Harris is attempting to win over younger male voters during the last full week of the 2024 election cycle by tying in with various video game manufacturers.
Among the games the Harris campaign is including in its outreach is Fortnite, a multiplayer game in which players fight to be the last one standing and where they can create their own levels. The Harris campaign has promoted its own level, titled “Freedom Town, USA,” for players to access, which features various signage promoting the vice president’s campaign.
squad up, go vote
🇺🇸: 7331-5536-6547 pic.twitter.com/DIKdV6QL4b— Official Team Kamala (@TeamKamala) October 28, 2024
Harris also appeared on the Club Shay Shay podcast, which was sponsored by the video game Call of Duty Black Ops 6. It is currently the only episode of the podcast to be sponsored by the game, which was released on Friday.
The episode featuring Harris was prefaced by an ad for the game, in which a man gives out “I Voted” stickers to people at a voting location. The game has also released similar promotions tying into the election in a humorous manner, including one showcasing the same man looking at polling data for the Electoral College.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Harris’s 2024 running mate, has also contributed to the Harris campaign’s effort to win over gamers, joining Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to stream the Madden NFL and Crazy Taxi video games. The two streamed on the platform Twitch, a platform commonly used to stream video games.
Brought back a Dreamcast classic. pic.twitter.com/iGwAzToQz4
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) October 27, 2024
It is not the first time the Democratic presidential ticket has attempted to appeal to younger voters through video games. Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden utilized the life simulation video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons to promote yard signs supporting the Biden-Harris campaign. Former President Barack Obama also promoted his first presidential campaign in Burnout Paradise, a 2008 racing game that featured billboard ads for his campaign.
Former President Donald Trump is also seeking the younger male voting bloc, though he has opted to make various appearances on podcasts, the most recent of which was on The Joe Rogan Experience. A large majority of the podcasts Trump has appeared on, such as This Past Weekend w/Theo Von and ImPaulsive, appeal to male audiences.
Ahead of the 2024 election next week, data from Harvard Youth Poll has indicated that Trump is beating Harris among white men between the ages of 18 and 29. Among non-white men in this same age demographic, Harris is leading Trump by 23 percentage points, a smaller lead than the 30% lead Biden had in spring 2024 before he opted out of his reelection bid.
The Washington Examiner has contacted Epic Games and Activision, the publishers of Fortnite and Call of Duty Black Ops 6, respectively, for comment.
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