TikToking To Voters? Policy Attention on TikTok During the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

The 2024 U.S. presidential election was the first in which both major-party candidates incorporated TikTok into their digital campaign strategies, giving campaigns a new way to reach younger voters. We analyze 680 videos posted by the candidate and campaign accounts for both candidates between July 21 and November 5, 2024, coding for explicit policy content and policy topic. Policy communication was relatively uncommon, and Trump was significantly more likely than Harris to discuss policy. The campaigns also emphasized different agendas. Trump focused heavily on macroeconomics, immigration, and law and crime, while Harris devoted more attention to abortion policy. We find little evidence that the emphasis on policy increased as Election Day approached. Policy-focused videos also received less engagement than non-policy content, while Trump videos consistently received greater engagement than Harris videos. These findings highlight the tension between traditional campaign policy communication and the incentives of a short-form, algorithmically curated platform.