Social media has helped build popularity for candidates in the 2016 race for president. This time it is the supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who have created the “Feel The Bern Challenge”.
The goal of the social media campaign is to spread and show their support for Sanders. The campaign is 100% volunteer-driven and inspired by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge which took the internet by storm in the summer of 2014.
Social media has played a huge role in connecting supporters and voters to candidates. In recent years President Obama’s success on social media has only increased its influence on the presidential election.
“I think it's a good way of getting out because we live in a very technologically advanced world,” Newtown High School junior Jaden Albrecht said. “It’s a good way to get younger voters, nowadays technology is very prevalent.”
In order to ‘Feel The Bern,’ one must record themselves eating a spicy pepper, drinking a tablespoon of hot sauce or doing some sort of strenuous exercise. After explaining why they support Sanders they nominate three people to take the challenge. On the official Feel The Bern Challenge website, they state that the goal of the challenge is to “spread awareness of, and garner support for, Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential Campaign.”
“If I’m on the edge between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders I’m not going to choose Hillary just because I don’t want to drink hot sauce,” NHS sophomore Quinn Fitzgerald said.
Jennine Lupo, a physics teacher at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington, Connecticut, has been a local volunteer for Senator Sanders campaign since he announced he was running for president in May 2015. Since then Lupo has volunteered for over twenty events in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York in support of Sanders.
“Our social media presence is our digital Army - we just crossed the 2.5 million contributors threshold - the greatest number of individual donors in any political campaign anywhere ever,” Lupo said. “With supporters especially at Reddit Bernie Sanders for President, volunteers have instant access to flyers, brochures, stickers that they can easily print at home and share immediately.”
The success of the Feel The Bern campaign and support of Senator Sanders have surprised many but there is no doubt that social media is on his side. As the 2016 election gets closer tension rises and candidates are trying everything to get their message across to millions of people.
“Bernie Sanders is the only candidate with the integrity to right the economic wrongs of the last forty years and his honesty and compassion for fellow man is what brings us to ‘Feel The Bern’!” Lupo said.
Because of the Feel The Bern challenge and the hard work volunteer like Lupo, Bernie Sanders’ campaign has reached over 2.5 million contributors. With internet access to flyers, news reports and videos, social media has helped this presidential candidate become a front runner for the 2016 election.
Image Courtesy of stickermule.com