Instagram personality Caroline Calloway has endorsed Bernie Sanders for the 2020 presidential election.

The self-described “Writer, Art Historian, and Artist” – who seems to be perpetually at the centre of scandal – revealed to her 700,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday that she plans to campaign for the Vermont senator in the spring.

Colloway posted a selfie to her IG story with the caption: “Two of my goals for this spring are to volunteer campainging for Bernie and to take a training course in empathetic listening so I can volunteer for a suicide hotline.”

Speaking to Texas-based publication The Daily Dot, Calloway said that conversations with journalist   Lauren Duca partly inspired her decision: “She asked me what I was doing on a monthly basis to give back to the causes I care about. I realised all of my donations were financial, and I wanted to start volunteering my time in addition to pledging my money this year.”

Calloway is loved and loathed in equal measure, and her announcement drew both pure adoration and sharp criticism on Twitter. One user suggested her endorsement was “worse” than Joe Rogan’s – the podcast host who said last week that he’d be backing Sanders too – while CNN reporter Daniella Díaz described it as: “The endorsement we all needed to know”.

Read our feature unpacking the art and performance of Calloway.