The Kamala Campaign Is Embracing the Memes
“kamala IS brat,” the British pop star Charli XCX posted on X just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew as the Democratic nominee and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the party against former President Donald Trump for the country’s vote in November.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Read More: Why Joe Biden Stepped Down
For some, the “brat” tweet could appear cryptic or confusing. For Gen Z—and increasingly, the Kamala Harris campaign itself and the Democratic Party, too—the message couldn’t be more clear: Harris is the meme candidate.
Shortly after Biden’s dramatic announcement, the @BidenHQ official campaign account on X converted to @KamalaHQ, and it has already fully embraced Harris’ internet appeal, which some observers believe could be a meaningful gamechanger in the election.
From coconuts to Venn diagrams, the Harris campaign and her supporters have turned the virality of the Vice President—as well as some of her awkwardest moments that opponents once latched onto as signs of incompetence—into profile-boosting symbols and soundbites that youth voters, in particular, can get behind.
Here’s what to know about the memes that have come to be associated with Harris:
‘kamala IS brat’
Charli XCX’s album “brat” was released last month to critical acclaim and has topped charts around the world. It’s also emerged as a summer cultural phenomenon among young people.
The artist explained what it means to be a brat on TikTok in early July: “You’re just that girl who is a little messy and likes to party, and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it. It’s very honest, it’s very blunt and a little bit volatile.”
One social media user embraced that definition for Harris by making a mashup video, featuring clips of Harris to the soundtrack of one of the club anthems off the album. It has since been viewed more than 3 million times.
When @KamalaHQ launched on Sunday, it copied the stylization of the album’s cover art—all lowercase font over a solid bright green background—for its account banner image.
Coconut context
The @KamalaHQ account bio—“Providing context”—references another popular meme associated with the Vice President.
The meme has its roots in a May 2023 speech Harris gave at the White House in which she relayed an anecdote: “My mother used to—she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’” she said with a laugh. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
At the time, the GOP War Room, an arm of the Republican National Committee, shared the clip in an apparent attempt to mock her.
But Harris supporters have reclaimed the coconut tree. As pressure ramped up in recent weeks for Biden to step aside and Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket, a Democratic operative described themself as “coconut pilled” to CNN (a play on the “red pill” alt-right meme). Social media users joked about “Operation Coconut Tree” and a “Coconut Republic,” and Washington-area bars began serving coconut-inspired cocktails.
On Sunday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appended three emojis to the end of his endorsement for Harris: a coconut, a tree, and the U.S. flag.
Emily’s List, a PAC dedicated to helping elect Democratic women candidates, similarly added the coconut and tree emojis to its username on X.
And Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz posted that he is “ready to help” the Vice President, alongside a photo of him climbing a coconut tree.
Last week, left-wing think tank Data for Progress conducted a poll in which it asked members of the public if they agreed or disagreed with the statement “you exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” A majority across both parties agreed.
‘Unburdened’
In the same vein as the coconut meme, the Harris campaign seems to have turned around another meme that was originally circulated by Republicans.
In December and again in June, the RNC and Trump campaign shared video compilations of a common refrain—“unburdened by what has been”—that Harris has repeated in official speeches and along the campaign trail.
But on Sunday @KamalaHQ retweeted a screenshot of an interaction on X in which a social media user replied to a Trump campaign account advising it to “drop the usage of that phrase now” because “Gen Z loves it.”
‘I love Venn diagrams’
Republicans have also mocked Harris’ very-public fondness for Venn diagrams.
“I love Venn diagrams,” Harris said in October 2022. “I really do. I love Venn diagrams. It’s just something about those three circles and the analysis about where there is the intersection, right?”
The RNC compiled a minute-long compilation of her praising the charts and called it “cringe.”
But on Sunday, @KamalaHQ embraced the meme with a new Venn diagram of its own, showing the intersection of Biden’s campaign and hers as “holding Trump accountable.”
It’s unclear yet what other similarities the Biden and Harris campaigns will share, but a major difference has already emerged: her effectiveness at turning attention on the internet into an asset.