When Assemblyman Alex Lee took office at age 25, he became the youngest State legislator for almost a century. The self-described “Zoomer” from San Jose started using TikTok in 2020, and now, five years later, he continues to reach out to voters on the app, distilling complex policy issues into bite-sized clips.
California's first openly bisexual state legislator, Lee has created posts supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and she explained the law banning the sale of anti-aging skin products to minors in California. Special Session Gas prices should be stabilized.
With a follower count of less than 1,300, Lee said he was a “mild, vague hit” on the app compared to his colleagues in Sacramento. “I'm not that big of a TikTok star.”
But he also described how he uses it strategically, avoiding “things that are scary” and anything that might risk stereotyping him as a Gen Z legislator.
“There's a way to turn down a younger member, which makes you look serious or childish, but I'm very intentional about it,” said Lee, who manages her account with the help of her small team. “That's why I avoid trendy things.”
The Supreme Court last week upheld a TikTok ban enacted by Congress on national security grounds, and on Sunday users were banned from the platform. A day and a half later, President Trump granted the agency a 90-day extension, leaving Lee and a small but growing group of active California politicians wondering what to do next.
Sen. Scott Weiner, 54, a Democrat from San Francisco, has fewer than 15,000 followers and has mastered getting videos to get views while sometimes making dry policy digestible.
“TikTok really allows you to connect with a lot of people that you wouldn't interact with as an elected official,” he told the Times. At first, the senator and his team tried to jump on the trend, but he soon turned to filming popular TikTok-style live camera videos.
“Those videos do well because people want authenticity,” he said. He added that some posts were “failed,” but “TikTok is a very powerful platform to connect with people.”

State Senator from San Francisco Democrat. Scott Weiner has garnered thousands of views on his TikTok videos on topics ranging from politics to everyday issues.
(Office of California Sen. Scott Weiner)
Some US lawmakers have accused TikTok of being used by the Chinese government to collect data on Americans and fuel disinformation, something the company behind the short-form video app has vehemently denied. Trump, through an executive order, gave ByteDance three months to sell or ban the app.
Weiner said he understood the national security implications, but argued the ban was “tragic” because it would censor a popular way of communicating.
Under the ban, Weiner said she would take to Instagram. He is also thinking of hypotheses. For example: What would happen if tech billionaire Elon Musk bought TikTok?
“I worry that he will destroy TikTok like X did,” Weiner said.
Countless US officials across the aisle, from local politics to the executive branch, have made their presence known on the app, including Trump, who has 15 million followers and used the app heavily on the campaign trail. Vice President JD Vance has 2.3 million followers, and U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York has 1.6 million. Former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter amassed more than half a million. The list goes on and on.
A federal lawmaker who voted against the TikTok ban last year, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from Long Beach, has been posting on the app since 2022. In his view, the app is no more dangerous than other forms of social media. media.
“There needs to be a better way to look at all of our social media platforms and be more equitable in how we make them secure,” Garcia said. “There's nothing I've heard that makes me think TikTok is an immediate threat to national security.”
He has around 110,000 followers on TikTok, far more than any other platform he has a presence on.
“TikTok is a great way to reach everyone,” Garcia said. “It took a while, but it's growing steadily. I've had a few videos go viral.
One of Garcia's most popular videos has over 2.2 million views. Caption: “When you find out you're the only congresswoman who has to sit on three committees like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman yells, “No, no!” in the background. With the audio of a man crying.
Another viral clip shows Garcia saying, “Welcome Elon Musk to the presidency” on MSNBC in December. It has received 2.5 million views.
While the goal is sometimes to trick political rivals, other lawmakers say the app is more effective in engaging with constituents and understanding their needs.
Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose who uses TikTok, said he “learned a lot” from the platform.
“To see people's first-hand experiences and have that empathy, especially with the terrible fire in Los Angeles,” he said. “In that way, it not only connects us to this human experience that we share, but it gives ordinary people a place to express their political viewpoints.”
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from Silicon Valley, voted against the TikTok ban and has used the platform over the past few weeks to collect signatures to prevent the app from going dark. After four days, the video had received nearly 18 million views and the petition had more than 1 million signatures. Khanna has since amassed over 200,000 followers on the app introduced “Repeal TikTok Ban Act” on Monday.
“The fight continues,” Khanna told the camera. “We need to make sure this app never goes dark again.”

US Representative Ro Khanna, a Silicon Valley Democrat, voted against the TikTok ban, and the app has grown a significant following.
(Rep. Ro Khanna)
His co-author, US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), warned in a statement that shutting down TikTok would be the first step on a slippery slope.
“They tell you it's about China. About security. About security. That's a lie. It's about control,” Paul said in a statement. “A government that can silence a platform can silence a person. Today it is TikTok. Tomorrow, this is your news”
Oliver Heimson, an assistant professor in the School of Information and Institute for Digital Studies at the University of Michigan, is wary of what restricting access to information will do, especially to users under the age of 24.
“It's very important for young people to get news and learn about political candidates,” he said.
Haimson also worries that users will migrate to Instagram Reels, owned by TikTok's rival Meta. Recently completed Its fact-checking program. Similar to Musk's approach with X, the platform will shift toward crowd-sourcing.
“That worries me,” Haimson said. “They can get things that aren't real.”