Like Snapchat and Candy Crush before it, young people adopted Pokémon GO — and the political class followed in their wake.
The game exploded into near ubiquity over the past several days, leading lawmakers and others to try and get in on the attention.
California Democratic Rep. Judy Chu tweeted about the game in an attempt to prod Republicans for opposing gun control legislation.
“Anyone else on #PokemonGO? I’ve found a #Squirtle & a #Pikachu in DC, but I’m still looking for a Republican willing to vote on #NoFlyNoBuy,” she wrote.
Democratic Rep. Gwen Graham, apparently blaming her interns for getting her in on the craze, posed for a picture with a Poliwag.
Never ones to stray away from a fight, one of the most feared military forces in the history of the world made a joke about Pikachu.
“Get off the firing line, Pikachu! That’s a safety violation!,” the official Twitter account of the U.S. Marine Corps wrote.
Ahead of her party’s national convention next week, a Republican digital director sent a screenshot of a plant-type in Cleveland.
“Gotta catch ’em all,” she told CNN’s Phil Mattingly via Twitter.
Unfortunately for many in the media, one political journalist beat a lot of her colleagues to the punch as reporters descend on Cleveland.
“Who’s going to do the first “Pokemon Go at the convention” piece? or has it been done already?” tweeted Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed News.