At this point, with Elon Musk busy engaging in a coup against the U.S. government, and also supporting far-right parties in Germany and elsewhere (not to mention giving Hitler-style salutes at rallies, saying/amplifying incredibly bigoted things all the time, etc.), it seems like a no-brainer that Democrats would have been busy for weeks or months now, diversifying their social media accounts to ones that aren’t run by someone like Musk, with Bluesky the main contender, given that Meta-owned properties like Threads are also highly problematic.
So, with that in mind, which Virginia politicos and reporters are on Bluesky at the moment? See below for a non-comprehensive list (although I did spend a decent amount of time on this), which shows that: 1) the vast majority of Virginia Republicans are avoiding Bluesky like the plague, because clearly it’s not a far-right echo chamber or a “safe space,” which is obviously what they prefer; 2) all the Virginia Congressional delegation Democrats are active on Bluesky; 3) none of the Virginia Congressional delegation Republicans are active on Bluesky; 4) most Virginia Democratic state senators are NOT active on Bluesky (that really needs to change, ASAP), and zero Republican state senators appear to be there; 5) only 14 House of Delegates Democrats (out of 51) seem to be active on Bluesky (that also needs to change, ASAP); 6) several statewide Democratic candidates (Jay Jones, Shannon Taylor, Levar Stoney) are active on Bluesky, while basically zero Republican statewide candidates are active there; 7) among Virginia journalists, but more appear to NOT be active on Bluesky than to be active there.
By the way, Blue Virginia now has over 6,000 followers on Bluesky, and growing fast. And overall, Bluesky now has over 31 million users, also growing fast, with tons of national reporters, politicians, etc. on there, so it’s not exactly an obscure or niche site. Which raises the question, what on earth are the Virginia Democrats who aren’t on there yet waiting for exactly???
P.S. A few others active on Bluesky include Sam Shirazi, VAPLAN, the Virginia Young Dems, Indivisible Virginia, Rep. Don Beyer’s deputy chief of staff Aaron Fritschner, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia executive director Jamie Lockhart, former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA05), Larry Sabato, etc. See the Blue Virginia “Starter Pack” for more!
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