Democrats are posting weightlifting videos to give their midterm campaigns a lift

CNN

26-07-2025

Democrats running in next year's midterms are pumping out videos of themselves pumping iron.
In one video, Texas Senate candidate Colin Allred stands in his home gym after a workout and, still in a sweat, criticizes President Donald Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. In another, Cait Conley, an Army veteran challenging New York Rep. Mike Lawler, talks about affordability as a video plays of her pressing weights over her head.
And when a critic on social media jabbed at his bench-press form in a recent campaign ad, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed posted a snappy dismissal correcting how many pounds he was lifting.
'That's 315, habibi,' El-Sayed said in a post on X that has been viewed more than 5 million times.
Politicians working out in public is a bipartisan custom. But Democrats are increasingly posting weightlifting content in hopes of reaching male voters in the so-called 'manosphere' that Trump mastered during his campaign. They are also trying to move past the ongoing arguments – fanned by Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill – over former President Joe Biden's physical and mental fitness.
'People want to see vigor, they want to see action, that you're prepared to do the job, doing more than sitting behind a podium regurgitating a litany of nonsensical acronyms,' said Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo.
Pat Dennis, another strategist, credited candidates for exploring new ways to reach people, but warned about seeming inauthentic.
'I would caution Democrats against pulling out a checklist – 'For young men, we'll do some bench pressing; for young women, we'll talk about the Barbie movie,'' he said. 'People don't like checklists and they don't like being pandered to. They remember you for who you are. You need to be authentic, in a way that is believable.'
El-Sayed said posting his lifts allows him to reach young men who otherwise have trouble identifying with Democrats. But he argues that the weightlifting content isn't just for men.
'As bro-coded as heavy lifting tends to be, like I said, some of the most monster lifters I've ever met are women over the ages of 65,' he said. 'This is a discipline that is there for everybody.'
El-Sayed is running in a crowded primary to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. As a physician and former public health official, El-Sayed has made health, fitness and appeals to young men hallmarks of his campaign.
'Part of the problem that we often have is folks don't see themselves in our politics,' he told CNN. 'I want to break that artificial barrier down – bringing the politics back into the gym and bringing the gym back into politics.'
Good night. pic.twitter.com/OUXLiLK5BZ This month, his campaign launched Facebook ads touting his workouts and calling for 'time, effort, and discipline' in politics.
In other social media posts, El-Sayed has spoken out about the need for better male role models and discussed how leaders can improve their outreach.
And El-Sayed also acknowledged that the focus on health and fitness could address voter concerns about aging political leadership.
'I do think there's something about vigor that you need in public leaders. Our public leaders need to be able to go all in, in the things that they do, and push themselves in all the ways that they can,' he told CNN. 'What it doesn't look like is Donald Trump. It's hilarious to me that like, he walks around being this caricature of a macho man – buddy, we've all seen you in a polo shirt.'
Allred is a retired NFL linebacker and former congressman making his second run for Senate this year in Texas, where Democrats are hoping for a statewide breakthrough against incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn or primary rival Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general. Allred lost a Senate bid last year to Sen. Ted Cruz.
The brawny Democrat has also made physical fitness a key part of his communications strategy, filming workout videos and using them to comment on campaign developments and news of the day.
'I'm at the end of my workout here, and just wanted to thank y'all for helping us have such a great launch yesterday,' he says, breathing hard and pumping weights, in a video posted the day after his campaign launch.
In another video posted last Friday, Allred commented on the escalating controversy over Epstein and his alleged links to Trump.
'Hey everybody, I just finished my workout, hope you got your workout in. So I guess we gotta talk about Jeffrey Epstein,' he says in the video.
A post shared by Colin Allred (@colinallred) Allred described his thinking behind the videos to CNN, saying that 'it's not something that I really planned on doing, as much as I started to feel like after my workouts, that I was doing anyway – that was when I felt I had something to say.'
Allred also said he recognized the concerns that voters have about aging politicians. 'I think it's a real concern,' he said. 'I do think that we have to show folks that we have the energy and I'd say sort of the fitness in order to go to bat for them.'
Earlier this year, Allred helped found the 'Speaking with American Men' project, aimed at helping the party reach those voters.
In a memo outlining their 'strategic plan' for 2025, the group pledged to 'develop a cohort of credible voices … to promote a constructive, aspirational vision of manhood that aligns with Democratic values without alienating other core constituencies.'
In Colorado's battleground 8th District, state Rep. Manny Rutinel is challenging Republican incumbent Gabe Evans with a series of social media videos that often feature Rutinel playing sports, working out, and ribbing his GOP rival.
'If I do 20 pull-ups, we're gonna flip a red seat blue in Congress to stop the horrors of the Trump administration,' he says in one of the videos on Instagram.
J.D. Scholten, a state lawmaker and minor league pitcher seeking to challenge Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, shared a video of a 'spot start' he made pitching for the independent Sioux City Explorers, writing, 'We got the W and are back in first place! Still learning the game at 45 years old…'
It's not just men who are producing fitness content. Conley, the Army veteran challenging Lawler in a top battleground district, has also made workouts and exercise a key component of her campaign communications.
'Welcome to Reps and Real Talk,' Conley, sitting in front of a bench press, says in an Instagram video promoting her campaign launch in March. 'Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be posting videos here to talk to you.'
Conley told CNN in a statement that 'fitness embodies those values which have guided me my whole life – from West Point to 16 years of military service and multiple combat tours.'
Meanwhile, Colorado Rep. Jason Crow – eyeing a Senate seat potentially opening with Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet running for governor – is a former Army Ranger who says he's training to retake the Army Combat Fitness test.
'I'm not the 27-year-old Ranger anymore,' joked Crow, 46, in an interview with CNN. 'But, you know, I'm crushing the pull-ups, I'm crushing the push-ups, the sprint-drag-carry I'm doing well, the plank I'm doing well on. I just need a little bit more time on the max deadlift than I used to so, but I'll get it there.'