Harris Campaign Hires Gamer to Play ‘World of Warcraft’ Next to Tim Walz Rally on Twitch

Kamala Harris/Twitch

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign hired a gamer to play World of Warcraft next to a speech by Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz on Wednesday.

On Harris’s official Twitch page, professional gamer Preheat played the popular fantasy MMO next to a livestream of Walz speaking at a rally in Arizona.

At its height, the livestream received nearly 5,000 viewers. After Walz left the stage, and the livestream transitioned to just World of Warcraft gameplay, it dropped to around 3,500 viewers.

“The Harris campaign’s goal in combining the rally with World of Warcraft gameplay is to increase the Harris’ and Walz’s visibility to young men who make up a majority of Twitch’s user base,” reported Wired , citing a spokesperson for the Harris campaign. “Over the past few weeks, the campaign has intentionally been trying to reach young men by advertising during major sporting events and on gaming sites like IGN.”

The Harris campaign described Preheat – who specializes in World of Warcraft and writes guides for the video game – as a “volunteer” for the campaign in a statement to Wired.

According to the magazine, Preheat instructed viewers “on how to defeat one of the more recent raid bosses from The War Within expansion” ahead of the campaign rally on Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump also has his own Twitch page , which was reinstated in July after being suspended for three-and-a-half years following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots.

Trump has not uploaded any videos to the page, however, and has never livestreamed a video game.