There’s one more influencer hoping his social media acumen will help him make a foray into politics.
Mark Moran — a Wall Street banker-turned-“F*boy Island” contestant-turned-contributor to Litquidity (a popular finance-focused meme account) — is throwing his hat in the ring for a Senate seat in Virginia. Moran is embracing a populist playbook focused on affordability and marketing himself entirely through social media in his effort to primary Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who has held the seat since 2009.
It’s a long-shot bid that hinges on a popular trend in politics — the idea that Gen Z and Millennial voters will prioritize social media authenticity and anti-corporate messaging over political experience and name recognition.
In a statement reviewed by The Post, Moran’s campaign highlighted how “deeply out of touch” the 71-year-old Warner is — referring to him as a “conservative oligarch who has a net worth of over $200 million and who has consistently failed to stand up for Virginians in the face of ever-increasing costs for housing, education, energy and more.”
Moran told me that, unlike Warner, he will not accept donations from corporate PACs, billionaires and AIPAC — entities that many in Gen Z see as the boogeyman.
And he’s using his own background in finance to show how deeply he understands Wall Street corruption. “Warner is taking more money from Wall Street, including my former bosses, than any other Democrat,” Moran claims. (The Post has reached out to Warner for comment.)
He’s also hitting on other favorite talking points with the TikTok crowd. In a press release announcing his candidacy, he criticized Warner for “failing to stop or even acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, or refusing to take action to make housing, healthcare, education and energy more affordable.”
He joins a growing field of candidates betting their social media prowess will matter more to voters than political experience.
Zohran Mamdani is the most notable politician to use slick social media videos to appeal to his base. The 34-year-old mobilized more than 100,000 volunteers to campaign for him in the NYC mayoral election. He beat longtime politician Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary in a shocking upset and went on to win the general election.
But he’s not alone — a crop of social media-savvy candidates have been popping up across the country with varying degrees of success.
In Arizona, Democratic Gen Z candidate Deja Foxx, 25, nearly won a special congressional election by building a loyal following of supporters on TikTok.
Social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, 26, is running as a Democrat for Congress in Illinois and using her YouTube and Instagram following to reach voters.
And Chi Ossé, 27, a Democratic New York-based city councilman, is building his following on Instagram and X as he prepares to explore even higher office.
Of course, this model has only a few success stories — namely Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — and someone’s ability to build a brand isn’t necessarily an indication of how effective they’ll be at representing or governing a district.
Moran, 34, grew up in a military family in McLean, Virginia — ironically, on Warner Avenue — and graduated from William & Mary, where he captained the track team, before earning a JD and MBA from University of Virginia. After a brief stint as an investment banker, he appeared on HBO Max’s “F*boy Island” and founded Equity Animal, an investor relations firm.
His campaign platform includes taxing data centers to fund free college, abolishing ICE, passing Medicare for All, and creating a “Declaration of Digital Rights” to protect privacy — positions that put him well to the left of Warner on nearly every issue.
According to internal polling Moran shared with The Post, Warner currently leads Moran 46% to 17% with people who only learned the basics about Moran and not his messaging. However, after hearing a message highlighting Moran’s anti-corporate, anti-corruption platform, “Moran leads Warner 35% to 33%,” according to the report.
“This year is the 250th anniversary of our country; now is the time for a peaceful revolution against the billionaires, the tech oligarchs, the data centers and all the other big money interests,” he said in a press release.
