Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Starts Twitch Gaming Channel To Play ‘Among Us’ And Encourage Voting

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has launched a Twitch channel to play the popular online video game Among Us and encourage viewers to vote in the election.

Ocasio-Cortez, who is the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, asked on Twitter if any gamers would join her to promote voting in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.

“Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote? (I’ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun),” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Monday.

As NME reported, many streamers and gaming organizations responded, including FaZe Clan, Pokimane, Grand Poo Bear, Disguised Toast, and Felicia Day. Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow congresswoman and “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar also expressed an interest in the game.

Originally released in 2018, Among Us picked up in popularity this year with the help of YouTube stars, TikTok celebrities, and Twitch streamers. The multiplayer game allows between four and 10 players to participate and assigns each of them a role. The players are all supposed to be crew members trapped on a spacecraft, carrying out menial chores to stay alive. However, at least one of them is an impostor whose aim is to sabotage their work and kill the others.

The game exceeded 100 million downloads in September, according to The Verge. Progressive organizations and activists have recently begun using that surge in popularity to get their message across to young people.

“Virtual organizing is really popping off right now. Among Us is a great place to talk about really anything you want to get out there. You’ve got people’s eyes and attention and the game is not too complicated where it’d be distracting to talk about voting.” gun violence activist Cameron Kasky told The New York Times.

Getting more young voters to the polls is a key priority for Democrats, as a majority of Americans under 35 tend to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and their policies. As The Inquisitr reported, Biden’s campaign is concerned that the race could be a lot closer than the numbers are currently indicating.

Ocasio-Cortez replied to a few interested followers, promising that she would get the necessary streaming equipment to play. Later that day, she tweeted that she planned to go live on Tuesday evening.

Once she had set up her verified Twitch channel on the popular streaming platform, it was quickly shared by other gamers and gained 220,000 followers, despite not having posted any videos yet. She will go live at 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, playing with streamers including Pokimane and Hasanabi.

This isn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez has engaged with voters on a popular gaming platform. Earlier this year, she used the Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing to interact with some of her online supporters.