Megan Coyne Took Her Experience Running New Jersey's State Twitter Account to the White House

Over the last few years, the undisputed champion of state-run Twitter accounts is undoubtedly New Jersey. Between jokes about The Sopranos, Bon Jovi, the Pork Roll vs. Taylor Ham debate, and supporting the recognition of Central Jersey, the @njgov Twitter handle became a bonafide hit with millions of daily interactions celebrating all things related to the Garden State.

The bright mind behind this new way of operating an otherwise mundane government function is Megan Coyne. A Livingston, NJ., native who started her work in the political social media sphere just a half-decade ago, Megan has already become the biggest social media voice in the nation thanks to her latest job appointment: Deputy Director of Platforms at the White House Office of Digital Strategy. So, who is she? And why is her work going viral right now? Let's unpack all of the known details.

Springing off of her successes with New Jersey's official Twitter, Megan is seemingly applying a similar ideology to the official White House Twitter account, which she now helms. Albeit a bit more formal and less Jersey than her last social media role, Megan's quick wit and innate grasp of how to captivate an audience have made her most recent posts on the page about as viral as could be.

When President Biden announced on August 24, 2022, that he would be forgiving between $10,000 and $20,000 in federal student loans to borrowers making less than $125,000 individually each year, the decision was naturally met with some disdain by conservative circles. Megan, who leveraged the New Jersey Twitter page to take on various other state entities (and often win), moved fast to react to Republicans slamming Biden's move.

In a thread that has since received millions of impressions, Megan used the White House Twitter page to directly call out conservative lawmakers who criticized the student loan forgiveness program, but who themselves have benefitted from government loan forgiveness in the past. The information that she dished out was scathing, to say the very least.

Quote-tweeting a video of congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green stating her disagreement with Biden's decision, Megan posted a statistic that had many followers shook: "Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven." For context, that's over 9 times the maximum debt forgiveness that Biden has offered each student.

Megan didn't stop there, however, as she continued the thread in the exact same manner by responding to various other Republican critics with the amount of debt that they've had forgiven.

"Congressman Vern Buchanan had over $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven," read the next post.

'Congressman Markwayne Mullin had over $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven," came right after. Yikes.

"Congressman Kevin Hern had over $1 million in PPP loans forgiven. Congressman Mike Kelly had $987,237 in PPP loans forgiven. Congressman Matt Gaetz had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven," Megan continued in the next few Tweets. Every single one of her posts has racked up hundreds of thousands of likes.

Prior to her White House fame, Megan graduated from the prestigious Rutgers University in New Jersey and began work in 2017 with then gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy's campaign team. She was the architect behind New Jersey's viral Twitter account and has worked tirelessly over the last five years to make it the most famous state Twitter account in the U.S.

Former communications director Mahen Gunaratna told New Jersey Globe upon Megan's transfer to the White House that she "has played an indispensable role for Governor Murphy. Beyond growing the Governor’s social media presence with authenticity, sharpness, and wit, she has fully reimagined the role social media can play in government."

If Megan's first few weeks on the job are indicative of anything, its that Americans are in for a whole new era of White House Tweeting, in the best way possible.