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1 month ago
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Typically the sign of a bad party is one where all of its guests are glued to their phones. One post-convention gathering in Chicago aimed for exactly that.
Late Tuesday night another niche, identity-driven group of liberals gathered at an exclusive and carefully curated event: the Hotties for Harris after-party.
The party centered around feminism, sex and its after-effects. Encompassed in pinks and brat-greens, messages that adorned the walls were designed to shock: the exact type of content that does well on platforms like TikTok.
The morning-after emergency contraceptive bill was being distributed out of a gumball machine. 'Plan B, nom nom nom,' the machine read. In fact early pregnancy tests, morning-after pills and UTI medication were distributed in every room of the event.
The event's organizers strived to provide a sensory experience for content creators who could share their message on social media platforms.
Upon entrance, there was a 'wall of weirdos.' J.D. Vance, of course, hung high up in a portrait on the wall, joined by a prominent photograph of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump, his two sons, Sen. Marco Rubio, Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Jim Jordan , among others.
The next wall was the 'hall of hotties.' No Republicans adorned this wall. Gov. Tim Walz had a front-and-center portrait next to Kamala Harris. They were joined by portaits of Doug Emhoff, Joe Biden, Stacey Adams Jason Kelce, Ariana Grande, Nancy Pelosi and Olivia Rodrigo.
The portraits have little in common physically, and none of them have ever made the cover of People Magazine's 'Most Beautiful' issue. So what is a 'hottie for Harris'?
'Hotness' is typically a trait assigned by outside beholders, but this group's organizers want people to self-identify as hotties.
Doug Emhoff is a hottie, they say, because he supports his wife Harris' career, considers her his equal and doesn't conform to traditional gender roles.
Walz is a hottie, they say, because he signed up to be the founding faculty advisor for his school’s gay/straight alliance in 1999.
'Supporting women’s rights is hot. Being against abortion is not,' Liz Plank, who goes by the Instagram handle @feministabulous and boasts nearly 600,000 followers, explained.
'As a woman who has frozen her eggs, and plans to use IVF, I’m aghast that JD Vance wants to take away our right to have a family. Men who take women’s rights away are not demure, not very mindful.'
Bullying J.D. Vance was a running theme of the event - even more so than Trump.
Next to a gaudy gold couch labeled 'property of J.D. Vance stood a statue of the VP contender. 'This statue honors J.D. Vance - the most awkward man in America,' it read, listing off rhyming and alliterative nicknames like 'the Bearded Weird' and 'Uncle Uncomfortable.'
Throughout the event were posters claiming a Trump presidency would mean the end of sex.
'Sex May Soon be Illegal! All Must Go,' 'Trump-Vance. Sex Ends Nov 5th,' 'Stop Sex Vote Red!' read a few of them. 'Tim Walz Got Me Laid!' read one.
Party favors also included sleeping masks labeled 'my kink is equality' and beverages included coconuts with straws and cocktail umbrellas - a reference to Harris' now-infamous line about falling out of a coconut tree.
Another room had arcade-style games like 'whack a weird policy' and 'abortion access skeetball.'
It had 'feminist mini-golf' where each hole had a different theme: one 'single cat ladies' hole was adorned with cats. There was a 'mansplaining' hole and a 'period tax' hole adorned with tampons.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion debuted 'hotties for Harris' at a campaign rally on July 30th.
'To me being a hottie for Harris means we're having fun, we're dancing, we're listening to fun music, we're partying, we're having a good time. We're having conversations about reproductive health care and what it means to have freedom in every aspect of our lives,' Mariana Pecora, spokesperson for youth mobilization group Voters of Tomorrow, told DailyMail.com.
Back at the United Center for the DNC, influencers squeezed out traditional journalists for space and access, as the Harris team bets big that viral online videos will help get their message out to young people.
The DNC gave credentials to more than 200 'content creators,' in a first-ever embrace of YouTube, TikTok and Instagram stars who boast youthful followings who often don't get their news from traditional media.
A new Voters of Tomorrow survey found that 67 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds had heard of Project 2025 - the leftist bogeyman policy plan outlined by the Heritage Foundation and trashed by even Trump himself. Sixty-five percent of them had heard about it through social media.
'Social media and specifically organic, user driven content that is coming from an authentic place, from young people, is driving the information ecosystem around this election cycle in a way that's really important,' said Pecora.
'Our generation is taking up more and more of the electorate. In 2028, young people and millennials are going to be the biggest voting bloc.'
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