Content creator John Russell speaks during the Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WHEELING – A Wheeling resident with a sizable social media following addressed the Democratic National Convention audience Thursday night, touting working-class voters and denouncing “dirty energy.”
John Russell, a former farmer in central Ohio and former Ohio congressional candidate, now calls Wheeling home. He is a self-professed “scumbag journalist” and runs The Holler, a Substack newsletter he describes as “class politics for hillbillies and hippies.” Several entries in The Holler deal with the East Palestine train wreck disaster.
Russell also works with the nonprofit newsroom More Perfect Union. One of Russell’s videos in collaboration with More Perfect Union played before he took the stage in Chicago. The video was about a rally for autoworkers by former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. But, he said in the video, he had difficulty finding United Auto Workers members at the rally.
Conversely, he said, Democrats have invested trillions in clean energy over the past four years to restart manufacturing and rebuild infrastructure.
As he took the stage, Russell said the working class was looking for a political home “after years of both parties putting profits before people.”
“Now Trump, a billionaire, says he’s going to take on the elites,” Russell said, “but then he promises handouts to big oil companies and hits out at anyone who has the courage to be different.”
He then recalled the West Virginians of the 1920s who were called “rednecks” because striking workers all wore red scarves “while they fought and died for respect and a living wage.”
The struggle of the workers back then, he continued, is still the same today.
“It is our choice to build on that progress and create a political home for the mass of working Americans fighting for control of their government, their jobs and their planet,” he said, “and this is our chance to do it justice.”
Russell’s appearance in Thursday’s speeches was part of an effort by Democrats to bring social media content creators into the convention, according to published reports. Younger people are more likely to get their news from social media these days, and Democrats wanted to capitalize on that movement.
Russell has 182,000 TikTok followers, nearly 14,000 Instagram followers and more than 9,000 subscribers on The Holler. One of his videos with More Perfect Union, in which he attends a Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, and speaks to attendees about the issues and concerns of the working class, has been viewed more than 3.2 million times.
Four other influencers who were given time on the DNC stage were Carlos Eduardo Espina, Deja Foxx, Olivia Julianna and Nabela Noor.
