“I could very well be the first female President of the United States,” starts the most viral video on 20-year-old Sydney Satalino’s TikTok account (with 3.5 million views to date). The Charlotte, North Carolina, native is not clairvoyant, but she is determined — determined to revamp the two-party system, get big money out of politics, and cement her name in the memory of the future electorate.
So far, she’s been pretty successful. Satalino first started going viral under the handle @sydney4america for her political content ridiculing the two-party system and promoting her future presidential run in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election. With a combined Instagram and TikTok following of over 200,000, it’s no question she’s got an audience eager to usher in a new generation of political ideas and leaders. But with her sights set on 2040 (the first election when she will meet the “age 35 or older” requirement to run for president), it begs the question: How do you sustain a political campaign for 15 years, and further, campaign for a party that doesn’t even officially exist yet?
But Satalino is confident. “More and more people are starting to realize that the two-party system isn’t it, and that we need to see a better future,” Satalino tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview.
A sophomore at Belmont University with a major in screenwriting and minor in political science, Satalino recalls being interested in politics from a young age. “When I was 3, I was saying I wanted to paint the White House pink when I became president,” she says. As she got older, her ambitions became more serious. “Once I started learning about how messed up our world is, how healthcare isn’t free, being a part of a generation that had to see school shootings in the news, learning more about all the corruption in the government, I felt a fire to want to change things,” Satalino says. “And that fire led me here, to creating my own party and hoping to change America for the better.”
The party she’s working to form is simply called the Progressive Party, which, if you paid attention in history class, you’ll recognize is not the first of its kind. Former President Theodore Roosevelt started a third party called the Progressive Party (famously nicknamed the Bull Moose Party) when he lost the Republican nomination in 1912. And while he didn’t win then, it was the best performance from a third-party candidate that the U.S. has ever seen. Satalino cites this as inspiration for her new Progressive Party.
“It’s super exciting saying I’m the leader of the Progressive Party, knowing that there’s such a rich history behind the name, and we’re able to bring that energy into the 21st century,” Satalino says, also referencing the 1924 election, when a candidate from the Progressive Party won the state of Wisconsin. “Going back to what was progressive for the time in 1912 and embracing it for 2025, showing [the Bull Moose party] as a manifestation of what’s considered progressive now — it felt pretty cool. So I decided to stick with that.”
Satalino’s platforms for her party include securing human rights and economic justice for average Americans, establishing a more peaceful foreign policy, and, as her party’s website says, shifting our government’s priorities “from corporate greed to human need.”
When I found out about how corporations are able to lobby the government and block progress … it hurt me. I felt betrayed.
“‘From corporate greed to human need’ basically symbolizes the people getting their government back, the people being able to control things again, progress being rampant in our society, and America being a shining beacon of hope, progress, freedom, and change.” Satalino says. It’s one of the party platforms that fires Satalino up the most, and it also hits close to home.
“Things started getting personal for me once corporations started really going after queer rights — because I’m a lesbian — and I saw the culture shift from something that was this fake acceptance, corporate-rainbow-capitalism to something that was more harshly oppressive, just because the corporations didn’t see us as profitable anymore,” Satalino says. “When I found out about how corporations are able to lobby the government and block progress and make things harder for the average working person, and that the representatives that we’re taught in school represent us, actually represent the rich and wealthy, it hurt me. I felt betrayed.”
Satalino recalls coming of age during both Trump and Biden’s first terms as an experience that weakened her trust in the two-party system. “I was growing up during the first Trump administration and basically all the social media then said, ‘Hey, once the Democrats get in power, everything’s going to be fine.’ And then when I was 16, Joe Biden got into office and nothing changed,” Satalino says. Now, rather than waiting around for change to come, Satalino and her team at the Progressive Party are seeking to be the ones to make it happen. “We want to be a force in American politics that isn’t just like an old third-party where they only run one person for president and they don’t run anything else,” Satalino says. “We want it to be an entire revolution.”
Of course, a lot of work goes into forming a political party. Satalino and her collaborators have the name and platforms established — but next up will likely come funding: If a party wants to raise and spend money for federal elections they must register with the Federal Elections Commission. The party would then have to meet certain requirements in each state to get on their ballot, usually achieved by getting a certain number of petition signatures, filing state election paperwork, and in some states, holding a party convention.
I want to get my message out there that this world needs to be changed and we will be able to change it.
Clearly, Satalino still has a ways to go before 2040. But she has plenty of more immediate aspirations she wants to pursue once she graduates in 2027, like finishing the novel and screenplay she’s currently working on, and getting practice running a successful campaign.
“There’s only so much I can do from my dorm, but I definitely want to travel more, be able to talk to more people, do some more things in person,” Satalino says. “I want to run for lower office too. I definitely want to run for governor of North Carolina.”
While painting the White House pink is no longer one of her top priorities, Satalino hopes to be the force for good that her younger self was waiting for. “I want to get my message out there that this world needs to be changed and we will be able to change it.”