Top South Carolina Democrats are courting social media influencers for help in persuading national party officials to pick the state to hold the nation's first presidential primary in 2028, Axios has learned.
Driving the news: South Carolina will host a "creator" briefing alongside the national party's meeting in Los Angeles this week — a reflection of the growing importance of Democrat-friendly influencers as the party seeks to recapture young voters from the GOP.
Lulu Cheng Meservey, a well-known public relations advisor to tech startups, has raised $40 million for a venture capital fund, as first disclosed in a securities filing.
The big picture: Meservey advocates for founders to take their message directly to the market, often via social platforms like X, rather than using traditional media as an intermediary.
Decades after he recorded "Baby Beluga" and "Down by the Bay," children's folk singer Raffi is still making music — and parents who grew up with him are playing his songs for their own kids.
What he's saying: "It's something that when I began this work almost 50 years ago, I could barely imagine," says Raffi Cavoukian, the Armenian-Canadian musician who's gone by just "Raffi" since he started making children's music.
From MrBeast opening a theme park in Saudi Arabia to iShowSpeed touring China, U.S. creators are seeking financial opportunities, new audiences and creative inspiration overseas.
Why it matters: These influencers are becoming key marketers for nations looking to diversify their economies and shape global perception.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) hasn't historically viewed foreign investments in domestic media and entertainment companies with as much national security concern as other countries. But TikTok has proven to be an important exception.
Why it matters: Regulators overseas tend to impose much stronger restrictions on who can access their culturally relevant businesses. In the U.S., a capitalistic mindset has proven easy for foreign investors to exploit.
As media companies, sports leagues and Hollywood studios eye new opportunities to expand, they are increasingly turning to foreign cash to help foot the bill.
Why it matters: Access to U.S. culture has become an irresistible soft power play for Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and Chinese investors. For media companies, the cultural stigma against accepting foreign cash is fading.
President Trump's Cabinet applauded him this week after he described Somali immigrants as "garbage" who "contribute nothing."
The president unapologetically condemned an entire community on the basis of ethnicity — with no fear of political backlash.
Why it matters: Guardrails against racist, xenophobic or dehumanizing rhetoric have all but vanished on the American right. What was once disqualifying — or the exclusive domain of online trolls — is now a fixture of national political discourse.
