Could Kamala’s Meme Queen Status Help Her Get Elected?

How did you find out that President Joe Biden dropped out of the race? If your answer is the celeb gossip account Pop Base, the Liza Minnelli account, or even Timothee Chalamet’s fan account Club Chalamet, then you’re not alone. For many people — particularly the chronically online — X (formerly Twitter) has become their main source of political news. In recent years, internet culture has become synonymous with THE culture. Whether it’s confirming if you’re actively experiencing an earthquake or discovering you’re living through a historical global IT outage, platforms like X and TikTok act as witnesses to our collective humanity. So, what does this mean for Vice President Kamala Harris’ new presidential campaign? And why does receiving an endorsement from Charli XCX (“kamala IS brat”), seemingly matter more than the backing of the president himself?

To echo what the New Yorker wrote back in January about the meme-ification of American politics, “more and more voters will be forming opinions in the 2024 election based on a funny video.” Memes have become so much more than viral internet moments. They have been known to influence protest movements and politics by acting as a subtle tool for civic engagement. Just look at the widespread use of Karen as a negative term for white women who use their privilege to further racism. This is because memes make the process of getting an idea out into the world more accessible. A random line in a 2023 White House speech like, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” finds its way onto the internet, and is simplified to the point where the coconut has become a symbol of support for Harris — regardless of whether you know the original context of which it came. And then there’s the people behind the memes: Gen Z.

Between protests and demonstrations on campus, Gen Z is known for showing up in droves for causes they support. Yet, there is still the lingering belief that young people don’t vote. Could the coconut meme directly lead to a record outcome of Gen Z turnout at the polls? Let’s explore the impact of social media on Harris’ campaign — from the coconut meme to the brat edit — and how it might influence younger voters in a way we haven’t seen before.

Kamala’s Meme-Ability Is A Good Thing… For Now

From TikTok feeds covered in Kamala fancams to rebranding Harris’ official campaign account with a “brat” theme, Harris is clearly making political gains as a relatable meme queen. And it doesn’t hurt that we’re knee-deep in Veep references. As one Twitter user pointed out, all it will take is a photo of Harris with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and we’ll be back in “Obama-era liberal cringe mode, and it will feel like a warm blanket.” A level of comfort for those who desire to return to pre-Trump times.

This wouldn’t be the first time the Democratic party has tried to take advantage of social media. In 2022, President Biden’s campaign team posted a job position responsible for “engaging the internet’s top content and meme pages.” A follow-up strategy to the campaign’s initial attempt to cast the octogenarian as “hip with the kids” by embracing the Dark Brandon laser eyes meme. In recent years, people have become more effective at formulating social media that feels like they’re connected with the person sending the message. “Social media is shockingly powerful because people feel like they have a personal relationship,” Karen North, PhD, expert in digital social media and psychology, tells Betches. “It’s like when your friends text or send you a meme, it’s the same vehicle that candidates use to connect with you. It feels like a convo with a friend… even if it’s manufactured.” Memes are entertaining, playful content — like an inside joke. With the coconut meme or the brat summer meme, it feels like we have an inside joke with VP Kamala Harris.

So, can social media affect election outcomes? Not to bring the big orange guy into this, but Trump’s uncanny ability to become the talk of the internet when he ran in 2016 was actually cited as a huge reason he was elected in the first place. While Facebook helped generate the bulk of his campaign’s online fundraising, the slanted content on Twitter may have persuaded voters who were on the edge, according to The Centre for Economic Policy Research. “His team invested in new ways of using the digital tools and platforms that have come to dominate the media landscape,” Issie Lapowsky wrote for Wired in November 2016. “Anyone who wants to defeat him in the future will have to do the same.” Cue, Kamala.

Laughing Kamala Is The Worst You Can Come Up With

As we already know, Trump loves a nickname. For President Biden, it was “Sleepy Joe” or “Crooked Joe.” And for VP Harris? It’s Laughing Kamala. Despite his best efforts to paint her as a villain, the name is so innocuous that if someone saw it trending on X — as it is today — it would be easy to assume it was a way to translate a fun, lighthearted personality. Conservatives are sharing edits of her laughing for “2 full minutes” as if it’s saying something. Because you know what people love to hate? Laughter. Sure, Josh.

Still, viral videos of Harris laughing at her own antics have spread outside of conservative circles. Thanks to the timely overlap of Charli XCX’s album release with the resurgence of Harris’ coconut tree speech, her random sound bites and giggles have been paired with the song Apple (popularized by #AppleDance on TikTok). Hence, “the brat edit” was formed. And if we know anything about the ins and outs of brat summer, it’s about being unapologetically yourself.

For Harris, the “brat summer” meme is doing her a lot of favors — whether it was a part of a larger strategy or not. To understand its role a little better, a quick history lesson is in order (bear with me!). President Ronald Reagan used to make really bad errors in his speeches. His way of dealing with it was to package it as, I’m just a regular person like you. “Some people saw through this and thought, he’s not a real person, he’s the leader of the free world — I’m not making a decision about nuclear war,” Dr. North says. Now, 35 years later we have Harris being portrayed as the brat meme as a way to explain away her moments of babbling incoherently (cough, cough: you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?). “Compared to Barbie summer of last year, brat summer means nobody has to look perfect and that’s okay. We appreciate people’s shortcomings as well as their accomplishments.” It’s just a repacked version of Ronald Reagan’s “Aw shucks, we all make mistakes.” Therefore, we’re all in it together. And, Harris’ campaign is embracing it for good reason.

Regardless of its original context, the nickname remains whimsical at best and underwhelming at worst. Yes, she’s ridiculous. But she’s competent. When Biden said something unhinged, we thought he was having a stroke on stage. But when she says anything with her over-the-top laughter, the public isn’t concerned about the early onset of dementia. And for the Democrats, that’s considered a win.

Where The Race Stands Post-Biden

Vice President Harris appears to be in a good position to win the Democratic nomination. With Biden’s endorsement, in addition to the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the backing of both progressives and moderates in Congress, Biden’s exit went about as well as Harris could have hoped. The rest of her support from the masses was seemingly set up by memes. There is a coziness with her that can only happen with parasocial relationships developed by the chronically online. Does the left love her? No, not necessarily. There’s still a large pushback against her as a former prosecutor. But with enough tweets like “Whispering ACAB as I fill in the little circle next to Kamala Harris,” it’s easy to get the impression that many have already made their choice.

Still, with a little more than 100 days left before the election, her team must keep up the momentum. “The problem is that it’s July, so the question is what can you do in October?” North says. “This whole campaign is focused on young people, the very people [Democrats] were afraid Biden wouldn’t connect with. But they can’t lose focus on the base. They need to make sure they don’t abandon the core voters.

The memes they’re playing with is entertaining content. They’ve gotta find a good balance at some point between the entertaining and actual policy.”