Illinois ballots are going out this week for the general election, and Chicago’s municipal election is coming in February. If you’re not already getting inundated with political messaging, just wait.
Candidates are using social media to build their own audiences, and influencers also are promoting politicians and issues. Podcasts are competing with traditional interviews; newspapers and TV stations still are playing a major role. And outside organizations are spending millions attempting to shape what voters think.
When I ran for mayor, we used social media, engaged with traditional and online media, and tried everything we could to reach more voters.
Here are five things worth knowing as election season ramps up.
1. Candidates are becoming influencers.
In an early sign of what was to come, Bill Clinton went on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992, put on sunglasses and played the saxophone. Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign made aggressive use of email, text messaging, online video and emerging social networks.
Social media took the idea much further.
President Donald Trump built an enormous direct audience. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani showed how effectively a candidate can use videos designed to look and feel like the rest of your social feed. Increasingly, candidates are becoming social media influencers themselves.
There are real benefits. You get to hear directly from the person asking for your vote. But when candidates own the audience, they also control much more of the message. There is no reporter asking follow-up questions, checking claims or adding context.
A useful rule of thumb is: When a candidate is speaking directly to you, ask what part of the story you’re not hearing.
2. Influencers are becoming political surrogates.
Campaigns and political organizations don’t just want candidates talking. They want social media influencers talking, too. Some are political creators already. Others built audiences around restaurants, sports, parenting, culture or something else and occasionally move into politics.
Sometimes they genuinely support a candidate. Sometimes they are paid. Sometimes they work with a campaign, political organization or another group operating around the race.
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, about 1 in 5 Americans regularly got news from social media news influencers; the percentage was even higher for adults younger than 30.
There’s no reason to assume every political post is secretly sponsored by a campaign. But the relationship behind the message is useful information.
So ask yourself: When an influencer starts making a political case, what is their relationship to the candidate or organization they’re talking about? Are they a supporter? Were they paid? Are they working with the campaign or an outside group?
The answer may not change your view. But it should shape how you understand the message.
3. Podcasts let us see a different side of politicians.
Podcasts and other casual-interview formats have become a major campaign tool.
More Top Picks Best Side By Side Refrigerators
Put a candidate on television with a political reporter for seven minutes, and you may learn a lot about policy or the controversy of the day. Put that same person with a comedian, entrepreneur or popular host for two hours, and you may learn something else entirely.
How do they think? What do they find funny? What are they like when they relax?
That is helpful information. Personality, judgment and temperament are part of what voters should evaluate. The risk is that familiarity can feel like understanding.
A podcast can make you feel like you know the candidate. But it can’t substitute for knowing their record, testing their claims or understanding what their policies would actually do.
4. Traditional media still does something different.
With candidates, influencers and podcasters all communicating directly with voters, it is fair to ask what traditional journalism still adds. A politician can tell you what they want you to know. A reporter can ask about what they left out. Push on an answer. Check a claim. Investigate something the campaign would rather not discuss.
Reporters are not unbiased or infallible. News organizations make choices about what to cover and how to cover it. But independent reporting still serves a distinct purpose.
If most of what you know about a candidate comes from the candidate or their supporters, seek out at least one source that is trying to scrutinize them rather than sell you on them. You may end up in exactly the same place, but you will have tested the case, not just heard it.
Tribune Editorial Board endorsements for the 2026 Illinois general election
5. A lot of political messaging doesn’t come from candidates at all.
Then there is the world surrounding campaigns. Political action committees. Super PACs. 501(c)(4) organizations. Unions. Business groups. Advocacy organizations. Issue groups.
It’s hard to keep track of them all. They have different rules, funding structures and relationships with candidates. But on your phone, they can look nearly identical: A slick video, a graphic and a person confidently explaining why you should care about an issue.
Here’s a useful habit to get into: Before you take the message at face value, look for who actually paid for it and what that organization is trying to accomplish. That context will tell you a lot about why that argument is in front of you, and you can make up your mind from there.
As the political volume gets louder over the coming months, it helps to recognize what kind of message you’re seeing, who is behind it and what that format may be leaving out.
Candidates, influencers, podcasters, reporters and outside groups all can give you useful information. They also bring different incentives, strengths and blind spots.
Understanding those differences gives you a better shot at sorting through the noise and making up your own mind. And if you’re now thinking — “OK so what are this guy’s biases and why is he telling me this?” — bravo! You’re on the right track.
More Top Picks Best Oversized Wall Clocks
Liam Stanton is a lifelong Chicagoan, small business owner, formal mayoral candidate and founder of The Chicago Style Project, a neighborhood advocacy group focused on solutions for Chicago’s biggest challenges.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].