In fiercely competitive Democratic Senate race, social media influencers increasingly drive the conversation

Talarico called the allegation a “mischaracterization of a private conversation,” acknowledging he described Allred’s “method of campaigning” as mediocre but insisting he “would never attack him on the basis of race.”

By that point, though, the allegation had become national headline news, bringing a virulent, ongoing proxy war waged online by content creators in the name of their preferred candidates to a blistering head.

The discourse around the Senate primary, which features two attention-savvy candidates, one a Black woman and the other a white man, has for weeks been driven by a mass of political content creators who often peddle amateur punditry, rumors and outright attacks against the candidates and each other.