In parade of memes, Cindy Holscher’s daughter reveals another side of candidate for Kansas governor
Since November 2025, her daughter's TikTok account has served up charming, silly and behind-the-scenes videos of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cindy Holscher. (Illustration by Eric Thomas)
Here’s a riddle.
As a parent, when are you OK with your child procrastinating on studying for their Calculus 3 final?
One answer: when your child creates a TikTok account that promotes your run for governor and collects more than 500,000 likes and 8,500 followers.
That sounds a bit specific. However, it’s the story of Cindy Holscher, a Democratic candidate for Kansas governor, and her 20-year-old daughter, Maddie.
“I had an exam coming up, and I just remember feeling dread studying for it,” said Maddie, who just finished her sophomore year at the University of Missouri studying actuarial sciences. “Calculus is not my favorite. I’m more of a statistics person.”
“I kept going on TikTok, and I would see political ‘influencers.’ And I just remember thinking, ‘I should spread the word about my mom’s campaign, because I kept seeing fun trends pop up online.’”
Since November 2025, the account (@maddieholscher) has served up charming, silly and behind-the-scenes videos of Holscher, co-starring Maddie as a loving daughter and goofy sidekick. Dozens of short-form vertical videos provide an upbeat social media mishmash.
Scroll. A slideshow of images of Holscher. Some are earnest campaign photos, but there is also a blooper photo from a trip to the thrift store. Holscher awkwardly wrestles with a blazer, and a caption reads, “She can’t swim (no joke someone please teach her).”
Scroll. A video of Maddie dancing the sprinkler dance behind her mom in the Kansas legislative chambers. Just feet from the camera, Holscher claps her hand over her mouth in embarrassment.
Scroll. Another slideshow, this one featuring Holscher on the cover of Taylor Swift’s latest album while the pop diva’s “Opalite” plays. The caption: “Here are some things my mom did back at the KS State Capitol.”
Scroll. It’s the most popular video from the account, with 940,000 views. As Holscher puts on make-up in the bathroom mirror at the family home, Maddie casts a faux spell on her. Maddie smiles broadly as her mom furrows her brow in confusion.
This week in my family’s kitchen, I found this particular 5-second spell-casting TikTok on Maddie’s feed. I let it play over and over. My college daughter noticed my confusion, leaned over and watched along.
“You don’t get it, do you?” she asked. “It’s a meme.”
Most of Maddie’s videos — perhaps most posts on TikTok — toy with memes. Posing the most out-of-touch question ever, I asked Maddie to define a meme and how she uses them. (I instantly aged 20 years.)
“A meme is a piece of media, usually like an image, video phrase, or a joke that just spreads online and is reused or transformed in many different ways by so many different people,” Maddie said. “They’re usually humorous or funny. They’re usually very culturally relevant. Memes can include trending sounds, popular jokes or viral dances.”
Watching Maddie’s TikToks about her mom, you must know the memes to get the jokes. The humor in many of the videos is that Holscher, like me, doesn’t get the meme.
“Sometimes I don’t realize what exactly is happening until a few seconds into it,” Holscher said, describing the moments when Maddie has surprised her and started recording. “Sometimes I’m kind of busy, and so sometimes you do see that reaction.”
Maddie added, “She’ll be like, ‘What is this for?’ And then I’m just like, ‘Just wait, just wait. Just stand here and do this pose, and then I will show you at the end of it.’”
The result: the classic comedy combination of a straight man and funny man, with Holscher grudgingly tolerating the camera while Maddie chews up the scenery and plays the jester.
Political image building is not the classic place for such a comedy routine. Through broadcast commercials, yard signs and other social media, candidates carefully manicure and curate sober, patriotic and calculated personal brands to voters. (See Holsher’s Facebook page or her campaign’s Facebook page for doses of that energy.)
In contrast, Maddie’s TikTok page takes risks.
“It is a different format than some of the other social media — more personal,” Holscher said. “I’m trusting Maddie to provide some good direction here, in terms of what’s going to work, what’s going to make sense and what’s going to help get the message across in a different format.”
It’s like a trust fall live on social media, with a Gen Z daughter catching her obliging mom, who just happens to be running for governor.
“She’s a trooper,” Maddie said.
There are limits, though.
“I have no problem in terms of poking fun at myself,” Holscher said. “But I’m not going to be doing a bunch of dances or things like that.”
Maddie said there aren’t any explicit rules handed to her by mom — or campaign staff. However, she does send them along to be reviewed by her mom or the campaign manager.
“People want to see more of the authentic self,” Holscher said. “They’ll see the (campaign) appearances that are done. Or they see me in the legislature. But they want to see that personal side and the behind-the-scenes part of life.”
For her part, Maddie’s life on other social media is otherwise mostly private. She doesn’t spend much time with Instagram and has moved her earlier, pre-campaign TikTok videos to private. (They were of her dog and her time as a figure skater, she says.)
Apart from the videos providing a strategic boost for Holscher as a candidate, Maddie’s TikTok channel is also a chance to bond. While away at college, Maddie says, “I FaceTime her like five times a day.”
“I love my mom, and I always want to spend time with her,” Maddie said. “So when I am home, I view it as a way to be engaging with the campaign and everything, and support her in a way … but also spend time with her, because I love my mom. I really do.”
Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.