The families of presidential candidates are set to play a key role ahead of the November election, as campaign messaging and social media access into the lives of the relatives of Trump, Harris and Walz’s push them into the spotlight.

The stepchildren of Kamala Harris, particularly Ella Emhoff, and the family of Tim Walz, were both present and highlighted throughout the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Jared Mondschein, director of research at the United States Studies Centre, said that although close relatives of presidential candidates have often been in the spotlight, sometimes for unseemly reasons, technology and social media have made them more accessible than ever to the general public.

“What we are seeing now is unprecedented access to them. For example, Kamala Harris’s stepchildren, we know their social media profiles, we know their stances on specific policies, including her stepdaughter’s views on Gaza,” he told The New Daily.

Ella Emhoff arrives to speak on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention. Photo: Getty

“We know her life choices and we can see the erosion of the barriers that we once had in terms that social media means that the families play an ever more significant role in these campaigns.”

He said that the prominence of Walz and Harris’ families at the DNC has been a strategy to highlight the difference between the candidates and parties.

“The juxtaposition of Trump and his family, his many marriages and his children having numerous half-siblings is definitely a deliberate approach,” Mondschein said.

“The Harris-Walz campaign wants to make their campaign the more conventional one, and Trump and JD Vance to be, in their words, weird.”

Trump’s family has been compared to the hit TV show Succession because of his children Eric, Donald Jr and Ivanka vying for his attention. Photo: Getty

Reaction

The online reaction to the Walz family’s jubilance towards their father received a strong positive reaction, with a wave of pushback against conservative commentators trying to shame his 17-year-old son’s tears at seeing his dad take the stage.

“That’s my dad!” Gus Walz exclaimed.

Mondschein said because a tiny number of voters in key swing states will decide the election, anything that resonates with them is a huge win.

“Kamala Harris is an unconventional presidential candidate, to be honest, potentially being the first woman, a black woman, and first south-Asian president,” he said.

“Tim Walz is just a Midwestern dad who can do everything from handle the barbecue at the party to fixing your pickup truck, and you only need to look at his children’s faces to see there really is an authentic tie between his family members.”

Another speaker at the DNC, Amy Klobuchar, reiterated the message that the Harris-Walz campaign was trying to reinforce when they made him the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.

Trump card?

Trump has been pushing hard to make the most of the younger members of his family, including his 18-year-old son Barron and 17-year-old granddaughter Kai.

Barron, according to Trump, has been instrumental is setting up interviews with high-profile influencers and streamers, including Jake Paul, Adin Ross and Theo Von.

Mondschein said that although Trump tried to use his family, like his 17-year-old granddaughter Kai, to humanise himself at the Republican National Convention, it is likely it would have played out differently if they knew he was running against Harris and not Biden.

“You had people talking about who Trump is as a man, what he’s like as a person and what he’s like as a friend,” he said.

“The level to which they tried to humanise him would probably be different if they were to do the Republican National Convention all over again.”