Organizers Increasingly Turn to Dating Apps to Reach Young Voters
Contributed by: kellyseal on Monday, April 17 2023 @ 10:34 am
Last modified on Monday, April 17 2023 @ 11:16 am
A new strategy that’s gaining steam among organizers is using dating apps to reach out to potential voters ahead of crucial U.S. elections.
According to The Guardian, encouraging young voters on dating apps to go to the polls on April 4th was an important strategy in the race in Wisconsin for a State Supreme Court seat, where youth votes ensured a victory for a Democrat-backed justice in the face of increasing rollbacks of rights regarding abortion and education.
In a report from Vanderbilt University in 2020, researchers found that 31 percent of millennial respondents were using online dating services even more than before the pandemic, and an even larger percentage of Gen Z singles were turning to dating apps to meet people. At the same time, they are increasingly resistant to phone calls and texts from organizers and campaign staff, especially as they get bombarded around election time. Dating apps are a way to casually engage their commitment.
The Guardian[*1] interviewed Kristi Johnston, the national press secretary for NextGen, an organization designed to increase turnout among young voters. As young voters are increasingly ignoring texts from organizations like these, Johnston saw an opportunity to reach them in a new way.
According to The Guardian, Johnston began posting political beliefs to her Hinge profile, with phrases like “the key to my heart is being pro-choice” and “together we can vote on April 4th and get drinks after” to woo potential matches, or at least get people engaged and thinking about voting. If they messaged her, she would ask if they were registered to vote and planned to do so.
She is based in Wisconsin, which just held important votes on its State Supreme Court. Young people have been a key factor in swing votes in many states, including Wisconsin, where Tufts University found that 68 percent of young respondents were registered to vote, and that historically it’s a high-turnout state. In 2022, the youth vote made the difference for Governor Tony Evers to beat his Republican opponent.
Some dating app users find it disingenuous to be targeted on dating apps solely for the purpose of engaging their vote, especially if they are interested in the person trying to engage them.
Johnston told The Guardian that she doesn’t feel guilty about using these tactics, since she also wants to meet someone too. “It’s not like I’m like matching with these people and might not ever see them. I could very well go and have a few drinks,” she said.