The Pattern
It started as a tired parent’s shower thought: “You know who should run for president? Ms. Rachel.”
Two years later, it’s not a joke anymore.
Rachel Griffin Accurso, the educator and media personality known to tens of millions of toddlers and their grateful parents as “Ms. Rachel,” has become the subject of a persistent, growing, and increasingly serious groundswell calling on her to run for president in 2028. What began as viral memes and half-serious Substack essays has evolved into Instagram posts declaring “Ms. Rachel for the people” and a genuine national conversation about what qualifications actually matter.
The case for her is not thin. It’s not just vibes. The reasons people support her are substantive, specific, and rooted in exactly the failures that have made American parents feel abandoned by their government.
And as of this week, the movement crossed a line it can’t uncross. It stopped being something people say at her, and became something she is doing.
This week: the movement went political
On Friday, July 31, Ms. Rachel used her Instagram to name twelve Democratic candidates running for the Senate and the House and told her five million followers, point blank: “These are the folks I believe care about all kids.” Then she asked her audience which candidates they were voting for, and why.
The list: Abdul El-Sayed for Senate in Michigan, Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st, Justin Pearson in Tennessee’s 9th, Peggy Flanagan for Senate in Minnesota, Troy Jackson for Senate in Maine, Becca Balint in Vermont, and six more down-ballot names. She posted it from her own account, unprompted, in her own words:
“I’m for the kids, I’m for the people. I think all kids and people should have medical care, I don’t think anyone needs a billion dollars ever, I think all kids should be safe from violence, I think parents should be able to afford high-quality childcare if they want it. A parent should be able to stay home if they want to.”
That is not an endorsement post. That is a platform.
The reaction told you everything. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a national party organ, put out a statement attacking a children’s television host. Spokesperson Samantha Cantrell told the NY Post that “Abdul El-Sayed and Ms. Rachel are one and the same, forcing their socialist, they/them, anti-America agenda on our children.” When a national committee spends its weekend on the woman who teaches toddlers their first words, the movement has already landed.
She did not retreat. The rest of her week, in receipts:
- July 27: After blowback over her advocacy on Gaza and the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, she told critics that supporting children’s humanity should not be called controversial.
- July 31: The same day as the endorsements, she publicly backed Rep. Jim McGovern’s push to get aid to children in Gaza.
- August 1: She came back from a week off social media, taken after a wave of hurtful videos and comments, with a message about boundaries, not an apology.
“I’m for peace and kindness always,” she wrote in the endorsement post. “But that doesn’t mean not telling the truth and not standing up against injustice.”
The essay that started it all. Erin Ryan’s viral Substack post, March 2024. Read it here
The proof: by the numbers
Her Instagram bio says it all: 5.1 million followers, advocate for every child.
Her record is measurable:
- 5.1 million Instagram followers who engage daily with her content and advocacy
- More than 21 million YouTube subscribers on her “Ms Rachel - Toddler Learning Videos” channel, as of September 19, 2026
- 350,000+ signatures on the petition to close the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, which she helped launch; dozens of artists and doctors were among its first signers. In June she carried letters written by detained children to members of Congress.
- $1 million pledged (with her husband Aron) to the World Food Program USA, providing approximately 2 million meals to children in crisis
- Glamour Women of the Year 2025 honoree, where she walked the red carpet in a custom gown embroidered with drawings made by children in Gaza
- 2024 Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni Award from NYU Steinhardt
- National media appearances on PBS NewsHour, Democracy Now!, Good Morning America, and The New York Times
Erin Ryan’s viral Substack essay (March 2024) collected thousands of shares, with commenters including people who went to high school with Rachel confirming: “She really is a genuinely sweet person and always has been.” Since then, the energy has only grown. Instagram accounts regularly post “Ms Rachel for the people” content. TikTok creators make compilation videos of her advocacy moments. It’s cross-platform and sustained.
Why people support her: the valid reasons
PBS NewsHour interview, August 2025. Watch here
1. She has actual credentials in education
Ms. Rachel is not an influencer who stumbled into a niche. She holds a Master of Arts in Music Education from NYU Steinhardt (class of 2016). She taught in public schools. She worked as an assistant teacher at a preschool for children with disabilities. She was a teaching artist for years before creating her channel.
Her videos are not random songs in front of a green screen. They are research-based, informed by speech-language pathology techniques, designed over weeks of preparation, and structured around developmental milestones. When her own son was speech-delayed, she didn’t just worry. She studied. She built a methodology.
In a country where most elected officials have never changed a diaper, let alone designed a curriculum, this is not nothing.
2. She stood up to bullies and didn’t blink
When bigots targeted Jules, a nonbinary performer on her show who uses they/them pronouns, Ms. Rachel did not issue a mealy-mouthed “we respect all perspectives” statement. She refused to budge. She kept Jules on the show. She made it clear that her platform was not for sale to hatred.
She has spoken out against book bans. She has defended public libraries. She posted support for hijab-wearing kindergartners after a provocative political post targeted them. She does not pick her advocacy based on what’s safe. She picks it based on who’s being hurt.
3. She put money and body on the line
This is not performative activism. Ms. Rachel and her husband pledged $1 million to the World Food Program USA. She helped launch and promote the petition to close the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, and it passed 350,000 signatures. She personally traveled to Washington to advocate for detained children. She has used her platform of millions to call for ceasefire and children’s rights in Gaza, knowing it would cost her some audience.
She was named one of Glamour’s Women of the Year 2025 specifically for this advocacy work. At the ceremony, she wore a gown embroidered with artwork drawn by children in Gaza. That’s not a photo op. That’s a statement of values stitched into fabric.
4. She has the charisma that actually matters
The Substack essay nailed this: Ms. Rachel holds the attention of two-year-olds. Politicians spend billions trying to command a room. She commands a room of toddlers, which is objectively harder.
On Good Morning America, children who had been sitting in a studio for hours (an eternity for a three-year-old) were enraptured during her performance. They rushed the stage. She is their Beatles. Their BTS.
If you can make a room full of two-year-olds lock in, you can handle a presidential debate.
5. She represents the parent class that politics ignores
American parents are exhausted, underfunded, and structurally abandoned. No paid parental leave guarantee. No universal childcare. A child tax credit that comes and goes with political winds. School days that end at 3 PM while work days end at 5. Summer camp registration that resembles a Hunger Games simulation.
Ms. Rachel’s entire career is built on making parents’ lives marginally less impossible. Her audience is not a demographic. It’s a class: the people raising the next generation of Americans while receiving almost zero structural support from the government that claims to represent them.
A candidate who speaks for that class, who has earned their trust not through policy papers but through years of showing up daily and making their lives better, has something no focus-grouped politician can manufacture: authentic connection to the people she’d serve.
6. She’s religious without being weaponized
Ms. Rachel and her husband met at a Unitarian Church. She is faithful without being performative about it. Voters want moral grounding. They are exhausted by religious extremism as a governing philosophy. She threads that needle.
7. She surrounds herself with smart people
Her husband Aron is a former Broadway conductor and composer who left the Great White Way to build her platform with her. Her show employs speech-language professionals, child development experts, and educators. She researches for weeks before each episode.
Nobody serious believes a president makes every decision alone. The question is: can this person assemble a team of experts, listen to them, and make good judgments? Ms. Rachel has been doing exactly that for years, at scale, under public scrutiny.
The “but she’s not a politician” objection (and why it fails)
Every four years, Americans elect someone who has never done the job before. The presidency is not a promotion ladder. There is no “junior president” position you work up from. Governors become presidents. Senators become presidents. Businesspeople become presidents. Reality TV stars become presidents.
The argument that Ms. Rachel lacks experience is the same argument used against every outsider candidate, and it has never stopped the American people when they wanted change. What she has that most career politicians lack is a proven track record of improving the daily lives of millions of Americans, a clean record, and the trust of a generation of parents who feel unseen.
Would we support her? Yes.
Not because it’s cute. Not because it’s a meme. Because everything above is true, and because the alternative is another cycle of choosing between candidates people find exhausting, terrifying, or both.
“The woman who makes your toddler say their first words and also stood up to Congress for detained children” is not a frivolous option.
It might be the most serious one.
People in the wild
Support for her shows up in comment sections, Reddit threads, TikToks, and Facebook groups. It comes from people who say no one in office fights for kids the way she does.
Threads
Threads search for “Ms Rachel president.” One account writes “Ms Rachel 2028.” Another defends her fundraising for children in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. Search here
People are already writing the year into their posts. Search here
Scroll down and the same search returns posts defending her advocacy for children, one of them from her own account.
The top results for the slogan are about her advocacy: “Ms. Rachel ONLY cares about the children.” Two of the results are hers. Search here
Lower down, one fan calls her “Ms Rachel for the people,” and a verified account warns parents: “Get Ms. Rachel out of your kids’ lives now.”
Users sharing her advocacy work and discussing it in the comments. Search here
A fan asks her for a solidarity T-shirt for adults. Below, her own post answers “Who’s funding Ms Rachel?” by crediting “really nice (tired) parents.”
The search keeps returning new posts, several from verified accounts and one from Ms. Rachel herself. Search here
Twitter / X
X requires login to search, so we pulled these from the timeline:
@HMJA206 (Jul 29, 2026): “Ms Rachel for President” Post
@NOSIRE (Jul 30, 2026): “Only 3 white women id take a bullet for: Jane Elliott Ms. Rachel Lisa Ann Walter” Post
@IllestKevAlive (Uncle Tito): “Ms. Rachel good with me.” Profile
Three tweets from three different accounts. One says it outright: “Ms Rachel for President.”
The r/politics thread when she publicly declared herself political and fought to close ICE detention centers. Thread here
From the comments: “Unfortunately being a good person is political these days.”
When she put money behind her values. Thread here
More from r/Fauxmoi. She just keeps showing up. Thread here
A Reddit user asks who they’d actually support. Ms. Rachel comes up. Thread here
Each design on her gown was drawn by a child from Gaza. Reddit noticed. Thread here
TikTok
NowThis Impact on TikTok covering the petition drive early on. Video here
TikTok’s discover page for Ms. Rachel content. The algorithm knows what people want.
“Ms Rachel for the people.” Posted and reshared across Instagram. Post here
Instagram reel covering her rise from kids’ creator to political force. Reel here
In January she posted this reel with the youth center at Aida refugee camp, near Bethlehem in the West Bank, to thank everyone who signed the camp’s petition against an Israeli order to demolish its football pitch. Reel here
Facebook comments on a Taste of Country post about her. Post here
Mosheh News on Facebook. Video here
The receipts: major media coverage
Full Democracy Now! interview, August 2025. Watch here
NYU Steinhardt’s official recognition. Read here
WWD coverage of the Glamour Women of the Year gown. Read here
Even the NY Post covered her. March 2026. Read here
Canadian comedy show “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” covered her. 109K views. She’s international now. Watch here
Ms. Rachel has not declared a candidacy. She has not filed paperwork or signaled intent. But as of this week she is naming candidates and laying out a platform in her own words, a national party committee is attacking her by name, and the distance between a movement and a campaign keeps shrinking. If 2028 is the year America decides a children’s educator with a master’s degree, a clean record, and the earned trust of millions is more qualified than another career politician, the groundswell is already here.
