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Politico
4 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Dead lawmakers tweet from beyond the grave
After Zohran Mamdani's apparent victory in the New York Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) liked an Instagram post congratulating him on his win. The only problem — Jackson Lee died last July. From ghost-likes and new profile pictures to a posthumous endorsement, accounts for dead lawmakers have seemingly resurrected on social media in an unsettling trend of beyond-the-grave engagement. 'Dear White Staffers,' an anonymous account dedicated to highlighting experiences and perspectives of non-white congressional staffers, on Wednesday posted a screenshot of a notification that the late Texas representative's account had liked the congratulatory post for Mamdani, captioning the screengrab with a quizzical emoji. But Jackson Lee isn't the only deceased lawmaker whose presence continues to be felt online. Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Democrat who filled Lee's Texas seat for a brief two months before his own passing in March 2025, appeared to change his profile picture on X three weeks after he died. 'Happy #OpeningDay!' Turner's personal account posted on MLB Opening Day, adding the hashtag 'NewProfilePic' along with a photo of the late lawmaker holding a baseball. A community guidelines note affixed by X to the post noted that 'Sylvester Turner died on March 5, 2025.' The post appeared to shock many X users, who commented on how uncanny it was to see the deceased lawmaker active on their feeds. 'Grim,' one user wrote, while another asked: 'So no one on his team thinks this is weird?' Former Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who died in May, has also continued to make waves from beyond the grave, as his political social media accounts chugged back to life to notify followers that early voting had begun in the race to fill his vacant seat. Before his passing, Connolly had endorsed his former chief of staff, James Walkinshaw, to replace him, having announced that he planned to step away from Congress after his esophageal cancer returned in April. People on Connolly's mailing list have also reportedly continued receiving emails from the late representative's campaign encouraging Virginians to vote for Walkinshaw in Saturday's special election, the newsletter Chaotic Era highlighted — and directing donations to Walkinshaw's campaign. But after Connolly's posthumous post came under scrutiny this week, it disappeared from the late Virginian's page on Thursday. Brian Garcia, communications director for Walkinshaw's campaign, emphasized that the campaign does not direct the content posted from Connolly's accounts. 'Supervisor Walkinshaw is proud to have earned the support of Congressman Connolly before he passed away and to now have the support of the Connolly family,' he said. The bio for Connolly's page notes that the lawmaker died in May, and says that posts on the page are made with Connolly's family's consent. Turner's account also appears to be run by his family, with the account recently posting a video featuring his daughter promoting a Houston parade he championed. But the case of posthumous tweeting fingers isn't a new phenomenon. An account for political activist, brief 2012 GOP presidential primary leader and staunch Trump supporter Herman Cain resurfaced two weeks after he died in July 2020 from a weekslong battle with Covid-19. The account posted attacks at then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and pro-Trump content — as well as conspiracy theories about the virus that had taken Cain's own life. The posts initially appeared under Cain's original account, bearing his name and profile picture. But his daughter shortly thereafter explained in a blog post that members of his family had taken over his social media presence and would continue posting under the new name 'Cain Gang.' The account remained active until March 2021, when it released its final post, saying 'It's time.' How to handle the social media presence of politicians when they die is a fairly new phenomenon. If a member of the House dies, for example, their office often remains open to fulfill constituent services — and sometimes continues posting to social media, albeit not typically under the lawmaker's name. And there's even less clarity around lawmakers' social media accounts that they use for campaigning, as opposed to official work. Zack Brown, who was the communications director for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) when he died in office in March 2022, said there is no official process for handing off control of lawmakers' social media accounts if they die while still serving. That leaves communications staff in an awkward bind on how to proceed with languishing accounts, he said. Although there were content rules on what staff members were allowed to post to Young's accounts — political, policy-related and ideological posts were off-limits — there was no guidance on what to do with the accounts themselves. 'When a member of Congress dies, nobody seems to care about getting the log-ins from you, or assuming control of the Facebook page,' Brown said. 'I still, if I wanted to, could go post to Facebook as Congressman Young — I could still tweet today as Congressman Young. And nobody from archives or records or from House administration, or anybody, seems to give a shit.' Brown continued serving in the Alaskan's office for four months after his death, administering the affairs of the office and helping wind down its operations to prepare for Young's replacement after the special election. While the process of physically closing down Young's office was 'meticulous,' with individual files and knickknacks from the lawmaker's office requiring logging, the 'digital aspect of it was completely ignored,' Brown said. Brown noted that failing to properly administer a lawmaker's social media presence is also a constituent services issue, as many people reach out to their representative's offices via direct message for assistance. But most of all, Brown cautioned, a lack of procedure for how to handle dead lawmaker's' socials poses a host of security risks that would normally be unthinkable for physical record-keeping. 'I can't walk into the National Archives right now and just go behind closed doors and take whatever files from Congressman Young that I want,' Brown said. 'Why does somebody who had social media access have that power to do that with tweets?' Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Fox News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Substack emerges as solidly progressive platform with ‘liberal thought leaders' flocking, researcher says
The growing media platform Substack is solidly liberal, with 81 of the 100 top-selling titles in the U.S. Politics category being "left-leaning or progressive," according to researcher Kyle Tharp. Tharp, who pens the "Chaotic Era" newsletter, explained that Twitter used to be "the go-to arena for Democratic strategists, elected officials, and a new class of liberal take-makers," but Elon Musk's takeover of the platform has pushed "liberal thought leaders" away. Lefty influencers have searched for a new home and some have migrated to Bluesky or Threads, but Tharp believes "a winner appears to have emerged" in recent months. "Newsletter platform Substack is having a moment, fueled largely by an influx of liberal-leaning political and media figures eager to share their takes. Online pundits and anti-Trump resistance leaders like Heather Cox Richardson, Dan Pfeiffer, Simon Rosenberg, Norm Eisen, Steve Schmidt, and Mary Trump have built sizable audiences by weighing in on the news of the day," Tharp wrote. "Democratic elected officials—including Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and Chris Murphy—have launched their own publications on the platform, aiming to grow dedicated followings ahead of potential presidential bids," he continued. "Perhaps most notably for the media industry, mainstream journalists who have left legacy outlets are finding new freedom to share their political opinions more openly on Substack. Among them: Taylor Lorenz, Mehdi Hasan, Tara Palmeri, Jennifer Rubin, Don Lemon, Jim Acosta, Terry Moran, and Dan Rather," Tharp added. Moran, who was axed from ABC News this month after posting an anti-Trump rant on X, quickly joined Substack and used the platform to double down on his social media post that called Trump and White House aide Stephen Miller "world-class haters." "This, while very hot, is an observation, a description that is accurate and true," Moran said. He added later, "It was something that was in my heart and mind. And I would say I used very strong language, deliberately, because he, I felt [was]… spitting venom and lies into our debate, degrading our public discourse, debasing it and using the power of the White House and what he's been given to grind us down in that bile. And, that's very disturbing to me." Tharp noted that "They're building a new echo chamber of left-leaning or anti-Trump commentary" one newsletter at a time. He included a graphic of the Top 50 "bestsellers" in the U.S. Politics category, which reveals the overwhelming majority of political content being consumed on Substack is of the liberal variety. The company appears to be embracing the liberal audience, as Tharp noted that anti-Trump figures Michael Cohen, Joe Walsh and Don Lemon are being used in the company's latest advertising campaign. He's unsure if the platform will continue the momentum "or if it's simply the latest stopover for Twitter refugees in search of an audience." "For now, Substack stands as a key town square for a certain segment of the left, reshaping how political narratives are distributed, debated, and consumed," Tharp wrote. While Substack does feature a handful of prominent non-liberals, such as Bari Weiss, it bills itself as "a new media app that connects you with the creators, ideas, and communities you care about most." "Here, you can discover world-class video, podcasts, and writing from a diverse set of creators who cover politics, pop culture, food, philosophy, tech, travel, and so much more," Substack's website states.
