A couple of days ago, American Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), otherwise known as AOC, sent out an innocuous tweet asking if anyone wanted to play Among Us with her to get out the vote. Within hours, every left-leaning content creator had replied saying they would gladly play with the U.S representative, and by the next day, AOC was streaming with some of Twitch’s biggest stars.
AOC’s stream last night was boundary breaking to say the least. She, along with Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), played hours of the hit game Among Us with the likes of Pokimane and Hasan Piker. AOC’s stream ended up peaking at 439,000 viewers on her channel alone. Combine that with the other concurrent viewers on the streams of other people playing the game, and total viewership lands at over 600,000.
Never thought we'd be using an official US seal on this website, but here we are!
The Congresswoman started the game knowing very little, and hoping she wouldn’t have to be the imposter. “I really don’t want to be imposter. Please don’t let me be impostor,” pleaded AOC. Naturally, she was immediately selected to be one, and her first kill was on Pokimane. “I can’t kill Poki,” cried AOC, immediately before doing the deed.
Throughout the stream there were laughs with political topics sprinkled on top. Between the hilarity of the game, AOC and Omar discussed healthcare and the importance of voting. In all, it made for a streaming experience unlike any other. At its start, AOC and Omar seemed out of place and slightly uncomfortable. Eventually though, the two were playing the game like champs (Omar especially makes for a vicious imposter) and joking around with Twitch’s biggest names as if they were savvy streamers.
Obviously, the opposite is the case. When AOC reached out to the internet about playing Among Us, there wasn’t even a Twitch channel registered to her name. One was quickly thrown together, and many watched in real-time as a banner, description and about page were fleshed out and put together for a Congresswoman’s Twitch channel.
AOC’s monumental stream might have an impact across gaming and politics for years to come; it was a way to connect and watch the people making laws in the U.S come back down to earth and do something that everyone can relate to. At the same time, the politicians were able to use the casual Twitch format to get their message across while mixing it with enjoyment. It’s amazing they were able to accomplish it with some of the platform’s biggest stars at the time, but that might be in part because of how rare an event this is.
There’s no word yet on another stream from AOC, but it’s likely that her time on Twitch hasn’t come to an end.
