The KHive Has Some Unlikely New Members: Bernie Stans

Vice President Kamala Harris has all but clinched her party’s nomination following endorsements from top Democrats, but she’s also winning over an unlikely group of supporters that used to rail against her: Bernie Bros.

Very online progressives have rallied to Harris’ side with an arsenal of coconut memes and Charli XCX references . It’s a curious phenomenon for anyone who remembers the jockeying among the crowded Democratic primary field in 2020. The fans of Kamala Harris — the notorious KHive, which fiercely attacked anyone who criticized the then-California senator — often clashed with Bernie supporters, who they charged with racism, sexism and pie-in-the-sky progressive idealism. In kind, team Bernie taunted Harris with the nickname “Cop-ala,” a jab at the former California attorney general’s tenure as a prosecutor.

But now, those same progressives have become a key force behind Harris’ growing online profile, fueled with memes and trendy songs that have transformed her image from just another bland politician to a quirky icon. In other words, reformed Bernie Bros have helped make Harris appear relatable and likable, and her campaign will have to thank them for helping secure her new brand .

“KAMALA NOW!!!!!,” tweeted Josh Cohen , better known as the author of the popular newsletter “ettingermentum.”

“I’m buckled up and ready to go,” writer and activist David Atkins posted , alongside a coconut emoji.

“She’s having the time of her life lol,” posted Sam Adler-Bell from the leftist “Know Your Enemy” podcast.

Bernie supporters’ change of heart over Harris largely speaks to the shifting political dynamics within the Democratic Party. With Sanders’ last campaign receding farther and farther into the past, and progressive stars like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still too young for a presidential bid, there’s no clear successor to the movement he started. With their erstwhile legislative priorities like free college and universal health care sidelined and current issues like the Israel-Hamas war shambling on with no clear end in sight, the horizon of progressive possibilities has shrunk.

In that context, the ouster of Biden — long derided among this cohort as a shamefully neoliberal establishmentarian — feels like a drop of rain in a drought. And a figure like Harris — long derided as an emissary of the “carceral state” — looks like a welcome change. She may be imperfect, sure, but for leftist voters exasperated with the Trump-Biden rematch, her candidacy inspires hope. And for an irony-infused online crowd, embracing the politics of the coconut is at least good for a laugh in dark times. It’s not that progressives have given up on their ideology. They argue that they haven’t changed; the circumstances have. In the face of a looming second Donald Trump presidency, progressives have decided they’re willing to do anything to avoid a Republican victory, even if it means organizing around a candidate who isn’t perfect, said NYC Councilmember Chi Ossé, who cast his first-ever vote for Sanders as an 18-year-old in 2016.

Like many of his peers, Ossé, a prominent progressive activist, wasn’t a fan of Harris at first: He had disagreed with Biden’s choice of Harris as his vice president in 2020 due to her criminal justice record. But Biden’s deteriorating performance made it clear that he’s unfit to run, Ossé said, leading him to support Harris, a politician he believes has the energy to promote the administration’s accomplishments. Even before Biden’s withdrawal, Ossé made his support for the vice president clear, uploading an edit of Harris clips with the song “Call Me Mother” by drag legend RuPaul Charles. The caption: “Coconut tree summer” — a nod to the vice president’s viral, heavily meme-ified speech, where she shared an anecdote about her mother that sits somewhere between awkward and endearing: “My mother … 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? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.’”

“Progressives are being pragmatic here. We want to win,” Ossé said. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not progressives on paper, by definition, but we understand that a Trump presidency is completely counterintuitive and destructive for the progressive movement. We want to win, and we know that Kamala Harris has a better chance of beating Donald Trump and the GOP than President Joe Biden does.”

Other progressives say that, despite their ideological differences with Harris, her identity as a younger, energetic woman of color adds excitement to the election. “I do think [the pragmatism] works in conjunction with her being a younger, more dynamic candidate, in that it offers some hope and actually something to vote for instead of just something to vote against Trump,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a leftist civil rights lawyer with a large online following.

The list of progressives posting for Harris is long, but a few notable names have been consistent. “ Die-hard Sanders fan ” Matthew Sitman, also a cohost of the popular leftist podcast “Know Your Enemy,” added a coconut and palm tree emoji next to his name on X weeks ago. After Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Sitman made scores of posts comparing Harris to Biden , arguing that her liveliness alone would make her a far better candidate. Since Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, he’s moved on to trolling conservative users online who are unhappy with Harris being Biden’s likely replacement.

Some progressives, like Emma Vigeland, who co-hosts the leftist talk show the “Majority Report,” have even become true believers. In one post, she wrote, “Me, shedding my toxic Bernie Bro baggage and embracing the warmth of Momala’s embrace beneath the coconut tree,” attaching a photo of Nicole Kidman spreading her arms out in ecstasy. For the past few weeks, she’s posted polls that present Harris as a stronger candidate than people give her credit for. During the 24 hours after Biden’s withdrawal announcement, her feed was filled with excitement about Harris’ candidacy , from her reproductive health platform to her Israel policy .

In a video titled “ Biden Drops Out!!! COCONUT GANG, RISE UP! ” posted shortly after Biden’s dropout, Vigeland said, “This is overall really, really good news. I’m in the coconut tree, I’m drinking my pina colada at this point as opposed to having my stomach constantly in knots over the anxiety of this decision.”

These reformed Bernie supporters aren’t just notable in their support for Harris — they were also directly out of step with the two biggest names in progressive politics: AOC and Sanders himself. Both lawmakers staunchly supported Biden until the bitter end, a move that raised eyebrows among some of their supporters. Many have tried to excuse the Biden defense as strategic politics — “progressives in the party are blamed for everything,” Ossé said — or swiftly moved on from the moment — “I think this election is too important to hold any grudges against anyone,” Caraballo said. AOC has since heartily endorsed Harris, though Sanders hasn’t yet.

For now, the focus is on posting and memeing Harris to the top of the ticket and into the White House. And progressives, many of whom are younger and more in tune with internet culture than older voters, know a viral moment can completely change the fate of a campaign. Ossé nods to Trump’s ability to appeal to a younger audience because he is so memeable. Harris, he believes, has the potential to replicate a similar path to success. Relatability could be a particularly valuable asset to the vice president, considering the country’s misogynistic and racist stereotyping of Black women as aggressive, he added. The memes that show Harris going off on tangents that feel out of place — “ I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles ” — reminds everyone of their chill but slightly weird aunt who laughs at inappropriate moments.

“While it may appear to be a joke or a trend, I think it’s really reaching a lot of people that could benefit her if she does become the nominee — coupled with her intelligence and her ability to speak about the distinction between Democrats and the GOP,” Ossé said.

An additional layer of motivation for progressives is that this isn’t just about Harris. It’s about the Democratic Party — which many leftists see as a major disappointment — finally recognizing the GOP as a real threat, even if it means abandoning Biden and tradition, said Varsha Venkatasubramanian, a 30-year-old progressive from California who has also attracted attention for her posting in support of Harris. Harris’ candidacy is a win for her because it means leftists’ concerns about Biden’s age — and subsequently his ability to win against Trump — were finally heard by a Democratic establishment she views as calcified and dismissive of progressive voters’ concerns.

“I, like many progressives, will vote for Harris if she's the nominee because she represents the Democratic Party being willing to take Joe Biden's un-electability seriously,” she said.

In the coming days, details about Harris that progressives have buried deep in the back of their minds might resurface — including her lack of action against police brutality as attorney general — but for now, they’re willing to make an exception. Even Harris’ criminal justice record gets a pass if it means they get to see her prosecute Trump on a debate stage, a moment that may not come if Trump gets his way .

“Her ability to stand across from Donald Trump as a former prosecutor and literally make the case as to how he defrauded the American people as well as defrauded them out of money is very, very strong,” Venkatasubramanian said. “She’s a literal cop. I’m not saying I love cops. I’m just saying she’s a literal cop standing across the debate stage from a felon.”