Why The ‘Meet Kevin’ Gubernatorial Campaign May be Historically Significant
When YouTuber Kevin Paffrath announced his run for the governor of California, he laid out a 20 part plan aimed at fixing the issues that have plagued California. He made this announcement on his YouTube channel, which along with his other social media profiles, will compose the majority of his campaign. If successful, this could mark a turning point in how political candidates campaign and allow a more democratic process for future political campaigns.
Political campaigns are not cheap and this not only affects a politician’s campaign, but how they legislate. One estimate says that legislators spend two-thirds of their time in office raising money for their party and their campaign. A social media campaign could be run relatively cheaply compared to the millions of dollars on traditional media ad buys and fundraising activities. Just as YouTube opened the doors for creators to make money on their content, social media may make it easier for non-politically connected people to make waves in the political arena.
This isn’t the first time media has played a role in elections. George Washington used his State of the Address speeches to reinforce his famous image and newspapers play a huge role, even today. But real advantages were given to FDR and Kennedy when they used technology to their advantage and connected with the public more ably than their competitors. Kennedy’s visual presence on American’s television screens propelled him to the presidency.
If the California recall of the Governor is successful, and Kevin Paffrath makes an outsized impact, then his campaign will be historically significant. If he wins, the reverberations could be felt across the media industry and eventually modernize the way we do politics. Politicians will be able to run campaigns affordably, allowing more citizens to become involved and shining more light on the wastes and abuses inherent in our current system.
California is a beautiful state with great industries, but it’s been poorly run with excessive taxes, regulation and bureaucracy. Gavin Newsom has not addressed these issues and nothing suggests he will change course soon. His recent overbearing pandemic restrictions cost the economy and affected many residents who might otherwise be apathetic to politics. With these actions, he opened a door to allow new ideas and new candidates to compete. And now, finally, the tools that the internet brought us may be put to use to upend our broken political system.
