Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on her policy platform, including improving the cost of living for all Americans and to lower costs for middle-class families in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Aug. 16. This is the candidate's first major policy speech since accepting the democratic party nomination.
It happened overnight. At least, it feels like it did.
One moment, President Joe Biden announces that he’s dropped out of the 2024 Presidential Election after a debate performance that left us at a loss for words. The next, those dark shadows produce chartreuse and blurred lowercase text — an aesthetic borrowed from Charli XCX’s ” Brat ,” the unofficial album of the summer.
We suddenly became aware of the context of all in which we live — one where Kamala Harris, equipped with $310 million that had been fundraised in July alone and a slew of bipartisan support, would win the Democratic presidential nomination and take on Donald Trump.
Since @BidenHQ became @KamalaHQ, Harris’ social media team has been working overtime. They’ve raked a ton of engagement across Instagram, TikTok and other platforms by tapping into emerging sounds, trends and visuals — all while taking satisfying (and fact-based) jabs at Trump, his running mate JD Vance and other Republican adversaries.
It’s all part of an audience-first, IYKYK social strategy that’s energetic and agile — a clear reflection of Harris’ young and savvy social team , who appear to totally grasp the current state of the internet. Arguably, it’s also a reflection of Harris herself, who takes the stage after an eight-year dynasty of sluggish old white men.
Relatability is the cornerstone of Harris’ social campaign, so much so that the team has opted to use her first name to forge a sense of connection with voters online. As a Gen Z woman of color, I find it promising; it’s not often that politicians will meet voters where they are culturally and digitally, and Harris’ campaign is arguably the first with a dedicated approach to win voters like me.
But, relatability is surface level. It’s fundamentally not the same thing as having a deep understanding for, and commitment to, the issues that concern young Americans of color. And while her social team is making strides in the former, there are still gaps in the latter to be addressed.
Getting Gen Zs like myself to discuss, like and share content is no easy feat. There’s an unspoken digital construct of rules and regulations to avoid being relegated to cringe, from which there’s no coming back. Harris herself teetered in this territory throughout her vice presidency, making the internet nervously laugh at her quips and musings on Venn diagrams and yellow school buses.
Of course, gender and race are always at play. By the sheer nature of being a Black and South Asian woman, Harris doesn’t get the same grace as those old white men. Various corners of the internet have been quick to relegate her as unserious and a ” childless cat lady ,” despite her undertakings while in the Biden administration.
But with the way @KamalaHQ has owned and subverted that perception, they’ll have you believe this was their plan all along. They’ve fully assumed Harris’ identity as your fun aunt, and her VP-select and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as a wholesome dad from the Midwest.
There’s a confidence underlying her posts — one that suggests Harris has already won the internet and by proxy, their vote. “A like on TikTok is basically seen as an endorsement,” Lauren Kapp, a team member who manages @KamalaHQ on TikTok, told CNN . Kapp also said that they’re seeing a lift in their engagement numbers compared to when the account was @BidenHQ.
So yeah, @KamalaHQ’s got our attention. But attention isn’t enough, as we’ve seen presidency over presidency. The stakes are high. Now more than previous generations, polls show that young people are looking to the government to make meaningful interventions in their day-to-day — which means that putting pen to paper on all policies and promises has never been more important in winning the demographic.
Infographics and videos of speeches supplement the memes on @KamalaHQ. Through them, we have a digestible, documented snapshot of what the Harris administration promises, like protecting access to abortion and birthing people’s rights to choose , and implementing measures to prevent price gouging on groceries and prescription drugs.
But the Harris team has yet to address other looming, existentially threatening crises that we care about. The presidential nominee’s sordid past with policing , for one, has raised concerns around how she’ll address mass incarceration and criminalization in office. That, and questions still remain around the action she’ll take to address the Israeli-Palestinian War .
“i desperately want to defeat trump and stop project 2025 but Kamala has simply not done enough to end the genocide in Palestine and hold Israel accountable for their war crimes,” one user asked on @KamalaHQ’s inauguratory Instagram post. “How will VP Harris do better to convince people like me who no longer can bear being complicit in the murder of children?”
Though Harris has called for an end to the violence , young pro-Palestine voters are skeptical considering how the Biden administration, whom she ultimately represents, has only stoked the flames of this violence against Palestine. They’re split on what to do. Some argue that voting for Harris would bode better for actually ending the violence compared to Trump. Others say that voting for Harris enables the violence.
@KamalaHQ is more powerful than we think. In a time when young people prefer getting their news off of social media, the handle can fill in gaps and information rather than relying on users to make assumptions themselves, better informing their votes.
So while I’ll watch the coconut remixes and tsk at the incoherent Trump sound bites, I — and many other young people — are looking for much, much more. @KamalaHQ has our attention, but it needs to give us something worth paying attention to.
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