Political content creators are making suggestive winks and sharing thirst traps in a spicy campaign to help boost civic engagement as election jurisdictions continue to report difficulties recruiting poll workers.
“Did I see myself a month ago slowly emerging from a pool as water careened off my body? Did I see myself finding a stripper pole somewhere in West Hollywood?” progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen told JS with a chuckle. “No, but I think that you have to be creative in this moment.”
As President Donald Trump undermines confidence in U.S. elections in the lead-up to November, creators told JS that they’re using sexiness to sell their followers on the critical role poll workers play in democracy. Cohen is leading the push through Chorus, a nonprofit he co-founded that works with “pro-democracy creators.”
Political influencers have been spotted taking off their shirts, posing with dancing poles and dropping “thirst traps for democracy” in hopes of getting their followers to sign up to staff their local polling places by greeting voters, issuing ballots and otherwise supporting the democratic process. They’re also encouraging followers to check their voter registrations.
While poll worker recruitment proved to be “easier” in 2024 compared with the 2020 election, 48% of election jurisdictions reported difficulties in recruiting and retaining a “sufficient” number of workers at locations, per a report from the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Cohen said that, as of earlier this week, the thirst trap trend has led to 31,000 poll worker interest forms being completed at Power the Polls — a nonpartisan initiative that describes itself as recruiting the “next generation of poll workers.”
There have also been over 60,000 voter registration checks as a result of the creators’ posts, per Cohen.
TikTok (Left to right: Brian Tyler Cohen, Tevin Davis and Sam Rosenholtz)
Alexandra Cascio — who shared a snap of herself in lingerie with a glittery red backdrop to tease what “no one tells you” about being a paid poll worker earlier this month — said Chorus called on scores of creators in July to take part in the recruitment efforts.
Inspired by a “click-baity” post by Elizabeth Booker Houston directing her followers to ways to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cascio used a picture from an old boudoir photo shoot to urge people to stop Trump’s efforts to “steal the 2026 midterms.”
“It’s almost leaning into the ways we know the internet operates, right? The more clickbaity, the more ‘gotcha,’ you can actually get views and attention,” Cascio said, referring to a need to “gamify” the algorithm to excite people about a “dry” topic like poll worker recruitment.
In a video earlier this month, attorney A.B. Burns-Tucker thanked the 2,100 people who had completed poll worker interest forms after she posted a clip of herself in a bikini, adding, “I know I had to show a little ‘mmm’ to get y’all attention but the reality is that, when it came down to it, you stepped up.”
Other creators have found creative ways to take part in the push, as well.
Tevin Davis — known for his viral Kamala Harris impersonations — played with the word “poll” in several posts, including one that starts with a clip of a woman falling as she tries to dance on a pole.
“It truly just became a thing that allowed people to feel like there could be joy, there could be humor, but that they had tangible information that they can then take and then turn it into civic engagement,” he said of the campaign.
Sam Rosenholtz, better known as Good Trouble to his 1.4 million followers, has worked the pole, too and gotten into what he calls a “thirst trap-off” with Cohen in recent weeks.
“More poll workers means more polling places can be open, more infrastructure can be had. That is a real world, tangible sort of answer to some of the apathy, some of the worry about voting on the day, and that directly translates into positivity about voting,” Rosenholtz stressed.