Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) officially has a verified Twitch account as of Tuesday, making him the first in the race to join the platform.
The Sanders campaign’s official activism Twitter account, @People4Bernie, shared a link to the new channel with the caption, “Verified by Twitch.”
Although its the senator’s first endeavor with Twitch, it isn’t his first time engaging with the video game industry.
On June 18, Sanders tweeted a link to an article reporting on working conditions for game developers and voiced his support for the Game Workers Unite labor union.
At te time of writing, Sanders sits at just over 7,100 followers, but follows only one other Twitch channel: The Washington Post. The newspaper has recently started producing a Twitch livestream for high-profile congressional hearings and major national news events.
The Sanders campaign may have consulted with the Post on how to effectively deliver political coverage on the gaming-centric platform and gave them a follow in return.
Nothing has been streamed from the channel just yet, but it’s very possible the first broadcast will happen this Thursday, June 27, when Sanders appears in the first official debate of the election cycle, hosted by NBC.
Sanders and his team have been keen on adopting any and all social and digital media mediums they can in hopes of staying on top of the rapidly changing online landscape, which has become more important for politicians with each election cycle.
Since losing the Democratic primary in 2016, Sanders has regularly held town halls and rallies across the country, all of which are streamed on the campaign’s accounts. The new Twitch channel will more than likely broadcast the same material as Sanders’ Facebook and Twitter accounts, but with slightly more emotes in the chatroom.
One of the campaign’s most reliable demographics are young adults, who are also Twitch’s largest audience. If the campaign is trying to bring its message to as many people as possible, incorporating Twitch is a logical move, not to mention the fundraising potential that subscriptions and bit donations offers.
The chances of seeing the 77-year old himself gaming is highly unlikely, but nothing in politics is particularly routine anymore. Perhaps we’ll see Sanders discussing fascism and war while playing Wolfenstein: The New Order, foreign policy and terrorism in Counter-Stike: Global Offensive, or how to best support people and maintain a healthy community in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
If interested in watching Bernie Sanders’ first (potential) Twitch broadcast, keep an eye on his Twitch account around 9:00pm EST on Thursday, June 27 for the presidential debate.
