Report maps the opaque, multimillion dollar political influencer industry

What the Map and report cover

The Political Influencer Industry Map visualizes the infrastructure behind political influencer content. According to CDT and CTRL, it identifies the people, institutions, relationships, incentives and technologies that put political influence into action. A written report goes deeper into the dynamics the Map documents.

The researchers say they drew on years of research and over 30 interviews conducted throughout 2026 with influencers, intermediaries, tech companies, political professionals and other industry actors.

The report argues that using social media creators as a campaign tactic only solidified in American politics in the last few years. It points to the 2024 presidential election, when hundreds of influencers were invited to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, as the turning point. Creators are described as people who provide information, entertainment and community, and whom audiences see as trusted and authentic messengers.

How paid political content works

The report describes political influencers as the visible communicators in large, opaque networks of campaign professionals, political consultants and digital marketers. Partnerships are regularly arranged through intermediaries such as influencer marketing agencies, and the agreements and payments are usually invisible to the public and to platforms' content moderation teams.

• Intermediaries may give influencers creative briefs with campaign talking points, so the messages blend into their regular content.
• Paid posts often go through an editing process in which intermediaries and campaign operatives give feedback on what the influencer says and when they post.
• Some intermediaries convene groups of creators to amplify messages through coordinated posting, liking and re-sharing. Some groups are informal, such as voluntary group chats. Others are more formal and can be purchased to artificially shape online conversation and inflate engagement metrics.

The report says campaigns and other political organizations allocate millions of dollars to consultants and commercial influencer agencies. Payments for political content range from a few dollars to upwards of $30,000 per post. It adds that creators and political partners are often, but not always, brought together by shared values, and that some relationships are strictly financial.

The report opens with two examples. One is a progressive digital strategist identified as AB, who says he has helped build YouTube influencers, owns a stake in their businesses and earns a cut of their revenues. "An influencer is an investment opportunity," he told the researchers. The other is Ashley St. Clair, who the report says exchanged her labor, creating videos and promoting campaign messages, for payment within a coordinated pro-Republican influencer ecosystem.

Regulatory gaps and the role of platforms

According to the report, political creator partnerships fall through the cracks of existing federal campaign finance rules. Except in specific circumstances, a federal political committee needs only to publicly report the intermediary it pays, not the individual creators or the content they produce. The law typically does not require influencers to disclose payment to their audience. The report also says creators often lack in-depth knowledge of FEC or FCC regulations and training in journalistic ethics.

State governments have stepped in to bring more transparency, the report says, but no single federal agency has ultimate authority over how political influencers do business. It also warns that the industry's opacity can facilitate clandestine foreign funding of political propaganda, since wealthy individuals and political entities from abroad can approach influencers, directly or through an intermediary, and ask them to promote a story in exchange for payment.

Social media companies are described as creating the conditions that make these campaigns work. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitch host the exchanges between influencers and audiences, and creators are integral to their business models. The report says platform choices on political advertising and branded content can incentivize influencers to cloak political ties to increase reach, and that algorithms rewarding politically charged content may push influencers further into controversy. Coordinated groups can also navigate algorithms to "manufacture consensus," in a manner the report compares to hashtag hijacking.

What it means for voters and the market

The central finding is one of visibility: viewers of a political post usually cannot tell whether it was paid for, who arranged it, or whether the creator's views are sincere. The report says it is difficult to distinguish compensated from uncompensated political coordination online. By mapping the actors and money flows, CDT and CTRL aim to make a largely hidden part of campaign infrastructure easier for the public to see and examine.