TikTok creators flip the script in Kamala Harris’s favor to woo young voters

In the days since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the ticket, TikTok has exploded with young creators flooding feeds with new memes and videos in an effort to bolster her candidacy.

The online flurry began after pop star Charli XCX declared on Sunday, “Kamala IS brat,” a reference to her new album released last month. A brat, in the singer’s words, is “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes, who feels herself, but then also maybe has a breakdown, but kind of parties through it.”

Harris’s campaign chose to lean into the trend, choosing a neon green banner and using a similar font on TikTok that resembled the album’s cover art. Later came a tidal wave of posts from mostly Generation Z users, including videos of the vice president’s most viral moments with the pop star’s music, often in neon green.

David Hogg, a 24-year-old Democratic activist who is part of the March for Our Lives Movement after the mass shooting at his high school in Florida, also highlighted Charli XCX’s post. 

“The amount this single tweet may have just done for the youth vote is not insignificant,” Hogg said.

Many of the videos feature what supporters see as her most relatable and endearing moments — such as her widely popular “coconut tree” clip, which comes from a speech where she shares a story about the phrase her mother used to say to her. Many also include her marching dance with a drum line at a 2019 event in Des Moines, Iowa.

“We love to see all the brat edits, the coconut memes. All of that is a representation of how excited young folks are to have a candidate that they can get excited about,” said Annika Krovi, 17, who serves as the national chairwoman of the High School Democrats of America. “I’m glad the campaign is leaning into these trends and showing that Vice President Kamala Harris is willing to be someone who can relate to us.”

Republicans had long used many of these videos against Harris, but in recent weeks, her supporters have flipped the script and are using the same clips to paint her in a new light. The trends are also giving new energy to Democrats after years of concerns about Biden’s age and former President Donald Trump’s momentum after the party united behind him at the Republican National Convention following his assassination attempt. 

“It’s so fun to watch. I haven’t seen anything like this since Obama’s campaign,” said Stacy Pearson, a Democratic strategist from Arizona who said her 21-year-old daughter is showing her all of the videos on TikTok. She’s communicating with young people where they are, and it’s really exciting to see.”

Roughly 41 million Gen Z residents between the ages of 18 and 27 will be eligible to vote in the United States this year, according to Tufts University. Young voters helped deliver Biden his first White House victory in 2020, winning 61% of voters under 30 and 55% between 30 and 44, according to the Associated Press VoteCast survey of the electorate. In 2016, young voters ultimately helped Trump win by either choosing a third-party candidate or deciding to stay home. Experts believe this critical group of voters will decide the 2024 presidential race. 

Harris’s official campaign account had gained nearly 1.5 million new followers by Friday, according to the data firm Social Blade, largely surpassing the number the Biden campaign’s now-closed account had after five months online. Before Biden dropped out of the race, Trump had been dominant on TikTok. According to a New York Times analysis in May, the pro-Trump posts nearly doubled the number of pro-Biden posts. When Trump first created an account, he gained 2.1 million followers in a day. His account currently has 9.2 million followers, compared to Harris’s campaign account, which has 1.9 million followers, and her personal one, which has 1.5 million followers. 

“Young voters — just go online, they’re really excited about her,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), the youngest member of Congress at 27. “It takes a special kind of leader between cool and consciousness, and I think we see that with the vice president right now on TikTok and social media. Now we got to go out there and translate that to votes.”

Frost emphasized it’s going to take a lot more than social media viral moments to get Harris’s candidacy across the finish line.

“We can’t just say, ‘Oh, something going viral online,’ and that’s it. We have to go out there and speak with these young voters and get them connected, registered to vote, and make sure they know when and where to vote,” the congressman said.