This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

Each December, the New York Young Republican Club’s gala offers a preview of the next season’s conservative provocations. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at the gala near the peak of her stardom in 2021; in the audience was another up-and-coming shit-stirrer, the newly elected, pre-scandal George Santos.

At the club’s most recent gala, however, elected officials were notably absent. Making headlines instead were an assortment of controversial livestreamers who roamed the event reciting inflammatory remarks into cameras.

After Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, commentators opined on influencers’ role in shaping new voters. As the 2026 midterms approach and Gen Z ages into power, those figures are increasingly becoming the party itself: Republican campaigns and org charts are increasingly populated by figures from the world of political streaming. At the NYYRC gala, on the campaign trail of a Florida gubernatorial candidate, and in national youth Republican offices, streamers and their strategies are shaping the way the Grand Old Party speaks and the policies it promotes.

“I’m out here normalizing racism,” one streamer told another on a live feed 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 at all. The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that Gen Z gets less of its news from TV, print, or news websites than young people of the recent past.

By 2025, the Reuters Institute found, social media had become the leading news source for people ages 18-24, a stark change from 2015, when news apps and websites commanded the most youth attention.

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

“One of the main things we’ve been finding over the past few years is younger people feeling alienated from news because they find it difficult to........

© Talking Points Memo