The New Swing Voters Aren’t Just Demographics. They’re Fans

In the current media landscape – one defined by endless scroll, fragmented viewing and declining trust in institutions (including those that provide both government services and news) – attention is no longer captured by “likely voter” labels alone. 

It’s captured by identity. And one of the clearest, most measurable expressions of identity today is fandom. That shift is no longer anecdotal: Pew Research Center found that 21 percent of Americans now regularly get their news from influencers on social media, making creator-led communities an increasingly important layer of political persuasion. 

For those unfamiliar, fandom – as defined in a recent WIRED piece by Makena Kelly – “isn’t just the act of loving a television show or having a parasocial relationship with a celebrity. It’s about belonging to a community of people with common interests who share lore and inside jokes, but also hero and villain narratives that color their world views.” 

Political movements operate in a similar vein. WIRED’s guide to the 2024 election mapped a wide spectrum of influential political creators, illustrating how influence now scales through networked communities. But until recently, the digital behaviors that come with “stanning” someone or creating fan-cams were largely reserved for pop culture figures, not candidates or causes. That’s starting to change. 

Traditional voter data – while invaluable for fundamentals like registration status, turnout history and districting – is also largely static. Fandom data adds an additional psychographic layer, capturing the values and emotional connection points that shape identity-based decision-making. It helps campaigns move from broad segments to more actionable groups, like “community-first voters who respond to narratives about loyalty and belonging.”

Fandoms also function as built-in distribution networks – groups that already know how to mobilize and amplify. Pew found that politics and the election were the most common topics discussed by news influencers in 2024, reinforcing that these communities are not adjacent to civic discourse; they are becoming one of its primary engines. Further research suggests that highly engaged fandom members are more likely to share messages and advocate for causes, and anyone who has watched a fanbase organize online knows how quickly narratives can spread when the community decides something matters. 

The implication for political advertisers is incredibly straightforward: Reach isn’t the finish line; activation is.

Of course, activation isn’t only about reaching voters – it’s also about influencing and shaping the conversations happening around them. In many cases, this community discourse dictates which cues are credible, urgent or worth acting on. And in an era when politics behave more like culture, the communities where culture is debated are increasingly the ones where voting decisions are framed.

It’s also particularly powerful for reaching multicultural audiences, where identity and community are often shaped by a blend of language, diaspora and shared cultural reference points, and where fandoms can serve as a connective tissue across platforms. In practice, fandom-based insights can help campaigns avoid flattening voters into a single demographic label, instead recognizing the cultural contexts that influence how messages travel.

At the same time, influencer marketing is becoming a bigger line item in politics, as more campaigns experiment with creators to cut through fractured media habits. But the opportunity (and the risk) isn’t just which influencers or famous figures a campaign partners with, it’s whether the campaign truly understands the dynamics shaping what their audiences believe, share and dismiss. Creators don’t simply deliver reach; they shape narratives inside tight-knit spaces. And if campaigns want influence to translate into persuasion, they must become obsessed with the communities around the voter – showing up in the environments where those conversations are already unfolding.

In a world where politics is competing with everything, campaigns need to start treating fan data as core infrastructure, not a nice-to-have. Identify the highest-value fandom clusters, map the content environments where those voters are most engaged and run controlled tests that vary message by context (not just by audience). Just as importantly, invest in shaping the conversations surrounding those voters by showing up consistently in the communities and environments where narratives are formed. 

Leaning into this approach will allow political advertisers to not only reach the right people, but also influence the discussions that move them – especially when attention is scarce and the stakes are high.

Kory Vargas Caro is the senior director of enterprise sales at Nexxen, leading the political market. Prior to joining Nexxen, he worked on Capitol Hill and on several congressional campaigns, where his expertise was focused on Latino candidate development and Latino voter engagement. He has an MBA from UC Berkeley and a BA from Stanford University.