BRILYN HOLLYHAND: Tiktok Helped Us Win, Let’s Not Wait Until The Last Minute Again

Let’s be honest: TikTok helped win the 2024 election for President Trump and the GOP.

You can scoff, roll your eyes, or call it a dancing app — but the numbers don’t lie. TikTok worked. To win in 2026 and beyond, Republicans must support a deal to secure TikTok and protect this channel to keep reaching Gen Z voters.

I watched its impact firsthand. As someone who advised the campaign on youth strategy, I pushed hard to make sure we met young voters where they actually are: social media. Backstage before a rally, I told President Trump directly: get on TikTok.

Not next month — now.

He listened. The result? Millions of views, real momentum, and a whole new generation of young voters fired up for America First.

I can already hear some conservatives clutching their pearls — “Isn’t TikTok the enemy?” Maybe. But the way I put it to the President was simple: if we boycott Gen Z’s primary platform, we’re handing it to the Left.

Over 39% of adults under 30 now say they regularly get news from TikTok. Among users with TikTok accounts, more than half — 52% — use it for news, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. Just five years ago, that number was only 3%. In early 2025, it’s 17% of all U.S. adults and rising fast. Ignore that audience, and we lose.

And let’s be clear: the Left isn’t ignoring it. They’ve spent years building an army of influencers, feeding curated narratives, and dominating the platform without a fight from us.

While legacy media stayed glued to cable news, we turned our phones into megaphones. Gen Z creators and conservative voices explained policy in plain English, exposed liberal hypocrisy, and made our values cool again. For the first time in years, we didn’t just survive the culture war — we won it online.

That didn’t come from think tanks or TV ads. It came from memes, reels, and TikToks that actually spoke our language — opinionated, punchy, funny, and shareable. And that’s how Gen Z consumes news: 84% of TikTok users see humorous takes, and 80% encounter opinion content, not traditional journalism.