Back in May, two progressive Cleveland City Council challengers filmed themselves staking out a fundraiser for the Council Leadership Fund at Nuevo Modern Mexican on the downtown lakefront.
The fund is a political action committee that council presidents have long used to boost their allies’ reelection bids. It’s a lightning rod for progressives and Cleveland political outsiders.
That made it a promising topic for an Instagram video, the visual lingua franca for our always-online age. Tanmay Shah and Alana Belle, the two candidates who posted the video, aren’t the only ones embracing the form. Candidates across the city are looking into their phones and hitting “record” this election season.
In Ward 7, Mohammad Faraj paddled into the Cuyahoga River in a kayak to share a few words about bringing new life to the waterfront. He walked city streets and pledged to protect pedestrians’ safety.
Austin Davis, his face framed by the concrete of Huntington Bank Field, bemoaned the stadium negotiations with the Browns. In a video filmed in his car, he celebrated an appellate ruling against a state law that stopped cities from banning flavored tobacco sales.
Rebecca Maurer, an incumbent running in the new Ward 5, recorded a step-by-step guide to voting by mail. She documented her wait for a bridge to swing back into place over the Cuyahoga River, which was keeping her from a union event featuring Dropkick Murphys.
Opponent and fellow council member Richard Starr stood in front of a cash-for-houses billboard and cried foul about its messaging. He provided his followers with on-the-ground reporting from the scene of a fire.
Outside Nuevo Modern Mexican, Shah had an on-camera run-in with one of his opponents, incumbent Danny Kelly, as the council member walked into the restaurant.
It was as non-confrontational as you could get. With a “Danny, how are you doing?” Shah politely asked Kelly if they could talk about the Council Leadership Fund. Kelly affably declined, saying, “See you later, brother.”
The videos use a visual language that anyone who has followed an influencer can recognize. The subject speaks directly to the camera, often with captions embedded on screen, sometimes holding (rather than wearing) a lavalier microphone.
Social videos may not be replacing traditional mailers and yard signs, but they are cheaper than radio or television ads. All a candidate has to do is record a few words, add captions and release the video into the algorithm like a balloon into the wind.
No piece like this can be written right now without a reference to Zohran Mamdani. The 33-year-old front-runner in New York City’s mayoral race has made snappy social media video his calling card.
Cleveland’s candidates may not match Mamdani’s big-city stage presence or production budget. But, like him, they’re trying to meet voters where we all spend too much of our time — on our phones.
