Your bag is empty.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff smolders through horn-rimmed glasses at a point somewhere above the camera, hands crossed and wavy hair falling slightly onto his forehead.
It’s a fan video, made by the account @senatorhotsoff — one of many fan accounts of the Democrat now crowding Instagram and TikTok.
“Girl.” reads the Instagram post. “Early voting ends tomorrow in Georgia. See you at the polls.”
The caption signs off with a peach emoji.
Elsewhere on the 2026 midterm campaign trail, the human buttocks plays a less subtle role.
“He has a great ass, a very powerful ass,” President Donald Trump said in a TikTok posted last week that complimented Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s shoulders and arms before adding “vote for Jon Husted.” Husted may not survive long as a Republican senator, but his ass will live forever in the zeitgeist of the 2026 election. Republicans have talked more about the former football player’s nether regions than nearly any other topic in the final weeks of the presidential election, forcing the Ohio senator to add gym time to his busy campaign schedule.
“I don’t want to let [Trump] down,” he explained.
Diesel prices be damned. This is the Thirst Trap Election.
Perhaps in need of something lighthearted in the midst of a midterm election centered around historic inflation, high gas prices, an unpopular war in Iran and deepening distrust in political institutions, voters are championing the charming, attractive, or “ripped” candidates — particularly men — up and down their ballots. Perhaps the least divisive and most bipartisan element of the 2026 midterm is, in fact, the timeless act of thirsting for political candidates.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle have answered the call. This cycle has given us outdoorsy, washboard abs in the Montana mountains and X-rated BDSM in the Long Island suburbs. Democratic challengers keep posting sweaty videos of themselves working out, while the typically straight-laced Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota referred to a fellow lawmaker as “eye candy.”
It’s not bad politics: Democrats, in particular, were already concerned about their “hotness deficit,” center-right-leaning news outlet The Bulwark wrote in March.
But as the primary smoke cleared, the view on the Left got better. Montana House candidate Sam Forstag’s washboard abs joined Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s tight muscle tees. Meanwhile, Colorado House candidate Manny Rutinel and Indiana Secretary of State candidate Beau Bayh both have strong futures as workout influencers should the election not go their way.
The Right is not without its own smokeshows: Texas Rep. Brandon Gill has been compared to Clark Kent and got his own “handsome” callout from Trump.
“if only he wasnt a trump supporter,” multiple TikTok accounts bemoaned over a montage of Gill campaigning and speaking on the House floor.
While female candidates — and their supporters — are less likely to play up their own attractiveness, there are a few finding unique ways to embrace the national hotness trend. Melat Kiros, the Democratic socialist who defeated longtime Rep. Diana DeGette in the deep-blue Colorado 1st congressional district primary earlier this year, is selling, ‘Hot Girls vote for Melat Kiros” T-shirts. Across town, Republican Kelley Dennison — running a long-shot race against Democrat Joe Neguse in Colorado’s 2nd district — was called “America’s first ‘Goth Baddie’ Congresswoman” by the Daily Caller.
After years of trying to win over hearts and minds, political parties this year remembered that Americans also have eyes.
Throughout it all, Ossoff’s shirts just kept getting tighter.
“Side note, jfc 🥵” digital strategist Micah Escobedo said on X, sharing a screenshot of a video of Ossoff, in a particularly tight button-down top, chatting with former vice president Kamala Harris.
This growing roster of attractive candidates would be nothing without their own fan accounts. You, too, can pay for a pin that says “thirst for democracy” from the woman running the prominent thirst accounts for Ossoff. That account, in turn, is inspiring local spinoffs, like this TikTok of Democratic Kansas candidates to Lizzo’s “Boys.”
Of course, there’s nothing more shallow than voting for someone because they look good on a button … right?
“Dems just love to pick random handsome candidates and pretend they are just a normal bluecollar dude,” former Trump White House deputy communications director Alex Pfeiffer tweeted in June, citing Forstag and then-Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner.
Pfeiffer’s former boss, however, sees the political salience of a handsome candidate. After complimenting Husted’s ass, arms and more in his TikTok, the president claimed his compliments helped.
“You know what happened? He went up 12 points in the ratings,” Trump said of Husted, who is, in fact, trailing in the RealClear Polling average before Tuesday.