Horny Dudes Are Pissed After Swiping Right and Matching With Bernie Sanders
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At least two women have had their Tinder accounts deleted, after using the dating app to campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Apparently too many men — who were decidedly not feeling the Bern — flagged the accounts, prompting their removal this week.
And they’re not the only ones using Tinder as a political campaign tool.
1. Robyn Gedrich
Robyn Gedrich, a 23-year-old from New Jersey, started Tinder-ing for Sanders earlier this month. Her method included swiping right on everyone and send messages to her matches encouraging them to support the Vermont senator. She'd send about 60 messages a day to unsuspecting Tinder users, Gedrich told Reuters.
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"Do you feel the bern [sic]?" she'd write. "Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks."
If they followed her instructions, they'd start to receive updates from Sanders' campaign and links to sign up to volunteer. The reactions to these accounts have varied, with some Tinder matches joking that they were already Sanders supporters and others, probably annoyed that they hadn't found love after all, reporting the account and ultimately getting her account blocked.
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2. Haley Lent
Haley Lent, a 22-year-old photographer from Iowa, also had her Tinder account deleted after using the app to spread information about Sanders' run for the presidency. She told ATTN: that she does anything she can to spread the word.
"I got a lot of positive feedback from people," Lent told ATTN:. "A lot of the guys I talked to from New Hampshire had already planned on voting for him. Some were angry that I wasn't there for a relationship (or anything else). Some thought I was a fake profile or robot."
Lent said that she was "a little upset" that Tinder banned her account because she had signed up for a paid premium membership the day before the company banned her.
"I wasn't doing anything wrong to my knowledge, so I don't really understand being banned," Lent said. "I am waiting for my account to be reviewed."
Tinder as a political campaign tool?
While it is unclear how many Sanders supporters are taking to Tinder to advance the candidate's political agenda, the movement appears to be growing. There's an entire Tumblr account called Tinder Campaigning that's dedicated to the "adventures of a perpetual right-swiper in the efforts of electing Bernie Sanders."
ATTN: reached out to Tinder and a campaign spokesperson for Bernie Sanders' campaign for comment, but a representative could not be reached by the time of publication.
