With more than 36,000 followers on TikTok, Eric Cheng frequently posts political content, featuring interviews with major California gubernatorial candidates alongside his progressive commentary. The 28-year-old Los Angeles resident hopes to make a living as a political influencer. But he says there is one line he will never cross.

“I will not endorse a candidate for money,” Cheng told The Standard. “I’m not going to get paid to support someone, because that doesn’t make me feel good.”

It’s a distinction now at the center of a formal state investigation into another influencer’s content as the world of paid posts, genuine endorsements and campaign cash blur together online. At the heart of the dispute are two of the leading Democratic candidates in the crowded governor’s race — billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer and former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra — whose rivalry has spilled into an increasingly messy public fight over who is paying influencers, and whether they’re being upfront about those payments.

“This made us question many of the pro-Steyer posts we had begun to see,” the complaint stated. The FPPC launched an investigation (opens in new tab) into Steyer and content creator Isaiah Washington, who is said to have been paid $10,000 by Steyer’s campaign but failed to disclose — a potential violation of state law. The video involved has been deleted.

The fight soon turned messier. Steyer’s campaign filed its own complaint against Becerra’s campaign, alleging it likely had also paid influencers. Becerra’s campaign and an influencer involved, Maggie Reed, denied the accusations, while Reed, Hennessy, and Gomberg then filed additional complaints against Steyer.

On Thursday, Steyer’s campaign responded again, alleging coordinated pro-Becerra and anti-Steyer activity on X and Facebook, identifying thousands of suspected fake accounts and suggesting a possible paid operation behind the posts.

Becerra’s spokesperson, Jonathan Underland, accused Steyer’s team of “spinning plates to hide the cracks” and making noise to hide their “unethical scheme to buy this election.” Kevin Liao, a spokesperson for Steyer, pushed back saying the complaints have “no merit.”

Political campaigns have long recognized that Gen Z tends to get political cues from social media rather than traditional media, with TikTok and Instagram now serving as major news sources for many young voters. The role of political influencers accelerated during the 2024 presidential election cycle, with both Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s camps spending millions (opens in new tab) on social media collaborations.

Catie Stewart, a San Francisco-based communications strategist, said online influencers are becoming increasingly effective because it is very difficult and expensive to break out in a statewide race. She noted that influencers are gaining more trust and leverage, especially in cases where traditional media has not covered certain stories — with influencers among the first to raise allegations involving former Rep. Eric Swalwell. 

“The truth is that the influencer market is very important,” Stewart said. “If campaigns are ignoring it, they’re ignoring it at their own peril.”

Now, in California’s crowded 2026 governor’s race, candidates are pouring unprecedented money (opens in new tab) directly into those platforms, forcing the state to ask: When an influencer supports a candidate, is it because they believe in them, or because they’ve been paid to?

The candidates don’t need to look far for their template. As Politico reported last year (opens in new tab), when Gov. Gavin Newsom wanted to build support for his redistricting ballot measure, he bypassed the Sunday show circuit in favor of livestreamed conversations with Substack writers, YouTube stars, and TikTok personalities. Behind the scenes, his team cultivated relationships with top influencers the way a press office manages beat reporters, texting creators daily, tracking every interview and view across platforms, and sending weekly emails to roughly 100 influencers with campaign messaging and talking points. 

Critically, those relationships were built on access, not payments — a distinction that is getting harder to maintain as the candidates now vying to succeed him pour direct cash into the same ecosystem Newsom courted assiduously.

Brandon Richards, a Sacramento-based digital media strategist, said the industry includes social media reporters who do not accept payment and creators who seek sponsorships, and moving between the two categories can create confusion.

“I think clarity and transparency are always good,” Richards said. “Audiences are usually very good at detecting authenticity, and if you’re not being authentic with your content, they’re going to call you out.”

In the political influencer market, rates largely depend on follower counts, audience engagement, and interaction levels — and in California’s governor’s race, the price tags vary wildly.

Steyer is self-funding more than $200 million into his campaign, with social media an important part of his outreach strategy. Payments from his team to content creators can start as low as $10 per video, first reported by the Sacramento Bee (opens in new tab). A job posting linked to his campaign offered $1,000 (opens in new tab) per month for user-generated content, with additional performance-based bonuses. 

Mid-tier influencers are reportedly being paid between $1,500 and $3,000 for more polished videos, such as sit-down interviews, with Steyer’s campaign filings showing multiple examples of those payments. At the top end, Carlos Espina, a Latino influencer with 14 million TikTok followers, was paid $100,000 by Steyer’s campaign — though the campaign said the payment was not for posting videos but for advisory services.

Espina, who is based in Texas, has featured Steyer in interviews, often wearing Steyer campaign T-shirts and appearing alongside him at events. “What I do is more of the advising side of things,” Espina told The New York Times (opens in new tab). Campaign finance reports document more than $1 million in Steyer spending on social media collaboration, much of it tied to foreign country-based meme accounts generating pro-Steyer content. One of the most prolific of these is based in Germany.

“Creators are a central part of how people communicate, learn, organize and understand the world around them,” Steyer said in a post Tuesday. “We compensate them for their work and their time.”

That ambiguity points to the limits of the law. Disclosure rules for paid social media influencer content differ sharply between the federal and state levels. At the federal level, if a campaign pays an agency representing influencers, the payment to the agency may be disclosed. There is no requirement to disclose subpayments to individual influencers. 

But a 2023 California law (opens in new tab) requires online creators to disclose paid political advertisements.

“It identified an upcoming area of enforcement,” said Marjan Philhour, a former supervisor candidate and now a director at Mercury Public Affairs. “The actual enforcement of it has not caught up with the spirit of the law, so there isn’t really a real penalty.” Hennessy and Gomberg also urged the FPPC to take stronger enforcement action in their complaint letter.

Alf LaMont, a longtime digital strategist, said credibility is everything in online politics, and financial disclosure can undermine the persuasive power of influencer content. “When it comes to political campaigns, the currency is believability and honesty,” he said. “If you have a ‘Hey guys, check out my candidate,’ and then immediately following it says ‘Paid for by that candidate,’ it diminishes the message because folks will see that money came into it.” 

LaMont’s firm includes several alumni from Newsom’s communications and digital teams; Becerra’s campaign is currently one of its clients.

For Cheng, the eye-popping sums earned by mega influencers still feel far out of reach. But he sees growing opportunities in the field — and a risk worth watching.

“My prediction is that there will only be more of a proliferation of this industry,” he said. “I hope that we’re not going to be replacing journalists.”