Inside ‘conservative influencers for Trump’ event as Republicans woo Gen Z after losing TikTok fight to Kamala
A group of conservative Gen Z influencers gathered to help elect Donald Trump in a last-minute bid to convince younger Americans to vote Republican.
The Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit that for over 50 years has pushed conservative policy, invited dozens of influencers to Washington, D.C., this week.
The three-day Influence America Summit brought emerging conservative stars like Savannah Chrisley, CJ Pearson, Sean Mike Kelly, Emily Saves America and more to the capital DailyMail.com can exclusively report.
Boasting nearly 50 million combined followers, the meeting of the minds was to discuss content strategies to get out the vote for Trump in the weeks ahead of Election Day.
From left to right: Emily Wilson of Emily Saves America, Chrissy Clark, Raquel DeBono, Liz Willis and Lexi Lach. Together they have hundreds of thousands of followers and have garnered millions of interactions on their Republican-leaning content
‘We convened 30 of the most impactful emerging young conservative voices in our movement, with a combined audience of nearly 50 million people, to strategize about how we can actually reach America’s young people where they are,’ 22-year-old conservative influencer CJ Pearson, told DailyMail.com.
The Republican has been involved with politics since he was 12 and has been actively posting content for the last decade accruing him an audience of over 700,000 across Instagram and X.
Pearson disclosed that the GOP creators were gathered to push back against a well-oiled Democrat influencer machine that has brought social media stars to the White House and more to boost President Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris.
‘For a long time, we’ve seen the left invest millions upon millions of dollars into bolstering these fake influencers like Harry Sisson and others, and I think that if we’re going to beat back against their indoctrination online, we’ve got to raise up a digital army, and that’s exactly what we did.’
The conservative admitted that Democrats have stormed onto TikTok en masse and Republicans are lagging behind.
But Pearson views the platform as up for grabs for whoever has the most convincing message, at least until it is banned in the U.S. come January.
With just 17 days until the presidential contest, the conservative creators crafted plans to synchronize their content.
Wilson poses with Nashville-based influencer Kristen Gaffney at the summit
Reality TV star Savannah Chrisley joined Pearson in moderating a discussion at the summit
Pearson said that their followers can expect content focused around immigration and the economy in a variety of fashions.
‘So what you’ll see coming out of this is going to be lots of man on the street content, lots of reaction videos around these issues that we know are moving people to our side and helping us reach them where they are,’ Pearson told DailyMail.com.
And part of that strategy is highlighting emerging voices like Emily Wilson who runs the popular Instagram account Emily Saves America.
Speaking on the pone with DailyMail.com Wilson described that she was ‘taking notes’ on strategies to engage her followers at the summit.
She disclosed that she originally started posting videos 4.5 years ago and mostly went viral for culture content at the time but later found success talking openly about her political beliefs.
‘I think my first viral video was actually talking crap about feminism,’ she said. ‘And so I, you know, I’ve never been a political person.’
Now, after living in California most of her life and taking issue with the political direction Los Angeles is leaning, Wilson decided to transition into making political content to be a voice for conservative Californians who may not want to out themselves.
Chrisley speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
PragerU’s Isabella Brown, Pearson, Wilson and PragerU’s Xavaier DuRousseau
In total there were 30 or so influencers. Sean Mike Kelly (L), host of Digital Social Hour, has over 11 million followers on Instagram
Former Maryland congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik poses with DuRousseau
‘Basically what I’m trying to do is help everyone else stand up for their beliefs as well, especially in cities where we are so greatly affected,’ Emily Saves America said. ‘And all I’m trying to do at this point is build communities in Los Angeles.’
At the conclusion of the event Friday Wilson said another large take away is the new network of conservative creators she was able to connect with.
‘It’s cool to come together,’ she said of the group. ‘I have 20 new friends that support me and what I do.’
