First, Streamers Set the GOP Agenda. Now They’re Taking Over the Party Itself.

This article is part of the TPM Café, the TPM opinion and news analysis site.

Every December, the New York Young Republican Club gala offers a taste of the following season’s conservative provocations. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at the gala near the height of her stardom in 2021; In the audience was another promising shit-stirrer, the newly elected George Santos, before the scandal.

However, during the club’s last gala, the elected officials were absent. Instead, an assortment of controversial livestreamers made headlines and roamed the event reciting inflammatory remarks in front of the cameras.

After Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, commentators spoke out about the role of influencers in training new voters. As the 2026 midterm elections approach and Generation Z rises to power, these figures are increasingly becoming the party itself: Republican campaigns and organizational charts are increasingly populated with figures from the world of political streaming. At the NYYRC gala, during a Florida gubernatorial candidate’s campaign, and in national Republican Youth offices, banners and their strategies shape the way the Grand Old Party speaks and the policies it promotes.

“I’m here to normalize racism,” one streamer told another live at the NYYRC gala. “I’m not a hater, but I am racist.”

Young Republicans don’t watch Fox News. Young people don’t really watch television news. The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report reveals that Generation Z receives less information from television, print or news sites than young people in the recent past.

By 2025, according to the Reuters Institute, social media had become the primary source of news for people aged 18 to 24, a sea change from 2015, when news apps and websites captured the most attention among young people.

Dr. Craig T. Robertson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Reuters Institute, said social media stars can serve as interpreters for a generation disenchanted with professional journalism.

“One of the main things we’ve seen over the last few years is that young people feel alienated from the news because they have difficulty understanding it,” Robertson told TPM. “Online creators and influencers are good translators of information. They make information easier to understand for people the same age as them.”

Some of these digital creators produce videos on TikTok or YouTube. But many have pioneered live political streaming, hosting hours-long broadcasts while interacting with viewers in a chat window. Political live streaming has its origins in video game streaming, with influencers frequently broadcasting from gamer-focused sites like Twitch and Kick. The format creates strange new incentives as streamers and their parasitic jockeys gain influence and create outrageous clips. A viral confrontation, an unexpected guest appearance, or a particularly inflammatory remark can bring a streamer out of the depths of the content mine.

At the forefront of the right’s live broadcasts is, of course, Nick Fuentes, a 27-year-old white nationalist who broadcasts five nights a week. Fuentes built a fandom on his desire to offend. He readily praises Adolf Hitler, abandons racist insults and advocates the repression of women and minorities.

A generation of aspiring right-wing shock jocks is taking notes. Copycats can be annoying, said one of the right’s millennial provocateurs.

“There are a bunch of Nick imposter-type characters emerging,” Lucian Wintrich, a former NYYRC official and former correspondent for the far-right newspaper Gateway Pundit, told TPM, “trying to cash in on his success by saying pretty much the same things, but missing the real charisma that he has.”

Fuentes was initially listed as an attendee at the NYYRC gala, but was removed from the guest list: a fact lamented by some attendees during a livestream and hotly contested by others after the event. Wintrich, who was NYYRC press chief at the time of the gala, defended Fuentes’ invitation and covered the event to reporters. The NYYRC is currently suing Wintrich for these comments.

Fuentes’ disinvitation did not extend to his contemporaries. Guests at the gala included Sneako, a popular right-wing streamer with a history of sexist remarks, and EmpathChan, a streaming personality who made a blackface video last year to attract attention.

Some aspiring GOP politicians are linking their campaigns to streamers and their audiences. Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback has become a darling of the Gen Z right by praising far-right streamers like Fuentes and appearing on videos with the likes of Sneako and “lookmaxxing” livestreamer Clavicular.

Fishback has adopted pro-streamer policy platforms (a tax on OnlyFans creators) as well as vocal tics for streamers. Junk food, in Fishback’s anti-Semitic parlance, is “goyslop.” The 31-year-old vowed to “mog” the competition by “Floridamaxxing”.

“He regurgitates what Nick says, but without the humor and with a different delivery,” Wintrich said. “I think people like him because he kind of brings up Nick’s stuff.”

Fishback also adopted a social media tactic from livestreamers. The candidate owes a large part of his modest audience to his use of “clipper” accounts, the New York Times reports. The Clippers generate second-hand fame by isolating and posting short clips from streamers’ long broadcasts. After each campaign event, the Times reports, Fishback’s digital director sends footage to a group of young volunteers who stitch together the speech for viral moments and upload clips to social media. (Clips can also cut the other way, as was the case this month when Fishback told a black livestreamer that “you should be lynched for lying about me.”)

In Texas, Republican lawmakers like Rep. Brendan Gill are exaggerating the growing hysteria over banners about the growing Indian and Indian-American population in the city of Frisco. Right-wing YouTuber Tyler Oliveira and TPUSA contributor Savanah Hernandez are among young content creators who have posted videos about an alleged Indian “invasion” underway in the state. And just days ago, Gill, the Republican Party’s youngest member of Congress, echoed their claims in a podcast appearance, citing an influx of people “who are not assimilating into American culture” to justify ending the H-1B work visa program.

Some young Republican stars were bannermen before becoming party members. Kai Schwemmer, the new political director of the College Republicans of America, gained national recognition as a Fuentes associate, appearing as a “special guest” at one of Fuentes’ political action conferences.

In a March statement to X, Schwemmer acknowledged having “spoken in an unnecessarily rude or demeaning manner” in the past, saying he had changed his attitude.

“Life is a process of growth and improvement,” he writes. “My comments in high school and as a teenager should not be taken as an accurate reflection of my current views or behavior. I condemn all forms of hatred, including anti-Semitism, obviously.”

A subsequent investigation by the Guardian, however, revealed even more racist comments from Schwemmer. As of 2022, Schwemmer has hosted at least 48 episodes of the show “Out of Touch” on Cozy.tv, a live streaming platform founded by Fuentes. In these episodes, Schwemmer made anti-Semitic remarks and claimed that gay men were “weaponizing” gyms “to give you AIDS,” the Guardian reported. He also suggested that women should not have the right to vote.

During mid-2025 streams, Schwemmer declared himself a “Nick fan” and said he would rather live in a society with legalized slavery and criminalized abortion, rather than one with legalized abortion and criminalized slavery.

In a medium that rewards provocation, Edgelords have the advantage, turning taboo positions into potentially winning messages.

Robertson, a researcher at the Reuters Institute, pointed to a March report from Sweden’s V-Dem Institute that found America was experiencing the “most dramatic” turn toward autocracy in its history.

Toxicity and political polarization rewarded by social media algorithms, Robertson said, likely played a role in this sudden decline.

“These creators and these voices, do they even believe what they say half the time?” asked Robertson. “It’s just a hunt for influence, for attention, so they can sell you supplements or whatever.”