Kamala Harris Is Courting Gamers Using Fortnite in the Last Week of the U.S. Presidential Campaign

[DogOfViolence]

It's the final week before the U.S. 2024 presidential election, and in the waning hours of her campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris is making a bid to a group that's not often targeted in such races: gamers.


Today, Harris' campaign is launching its own Fortnite map: Freedom Town, USA. It's a custom creative map themed around some of Harris' campaign pledges, including tax breaks for small businesses and a focus on affordable housing. The map can be found in Fortnite Creative starting today using code 733155366547, and can be observed in dedicated partner streams from Fortnite content creators such as Jordan "Huskerss" Thomas, Morgan "MODELMORG" Pope, Lyah "Himalyahs" Barberan, and Khairi "Kdot" Harris.


Freedom Town, USA is joined by political takeovers of at least eight other Fortnite Creative maps (Drive City, Troll Bed Wars, Meme Boxfights, Super Box PVP, Football Boxfights, Bullseye 2v2, Bullseye 1v1, and Bullseye 3v3), which will include political in-game signage, custom models, and themed audio cues. One of these cues, played when collecting a cat, plays a quote from Harris' rival former President Donald Trump: "they're eating the dogs, eating the cats."

This move comes as part of a recent, much broader appeal made by the Harris campaign to reach young, male voters through video games. Other recent efforts include a Geeks & Nerds for Harris fundraiser, a weekend Twitch stream where Vice Presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz played Madden NFL and Crazy Taxi with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and a number of advertising efforts across mobile games, sports betting platforms, and YouTube channels. (The Harris campaign has also advertised on IGN. You can view our policy on the separation of editorial and advertising interests here.)

While the Trump campaign has not made a similar targeted push to gamer audiences, the former President has commented on video games before. During his tenure in the White House, President Trump blamed violent video games for a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, saying that such games were "shaping young people's thoughts" and publishing a reel of "violent video games" that included clips from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Wolfenstein, Dead by Daylight, Sniper Elite, and Fallout 4. We've reached out to former President Trump's campaign for comment.


Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

This article has been updated to include clarification on the streamers and Creative maps involved in the Fortnite campaign.