First-name basis: Harris is leaning into ‘Kamala’

MILWAUKEE — Fans chanted “Kamala,” not “Harris,” when the vice president looked out into the crowd during her first rally last month as the Democrats’ likely nominee. She grasped the podium, grinning, pointing to supporters waving blue and white “KAMALA” signs passed out by her campaign.

It was branding by design. Within its first 48 hours, the Joe Biden-turned-Harris presidential campaign switched its social media channels from “Biden HQ” to “Kamala HQ.” When Barack and Michelle Obama, the former president and first lady, endorsed her, the campaign promoted the video as, “The Obamas call Kamala.” And when Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, posted a selfie on Instagram recently, they snapped in front of a sign that read, “Kamala and the coach.”

For Harris’ detractors, the use of her first name is often employed to insult. And it’s sparked another raging debate online about a tendency to refer to women by their first names, reserving the respectful use of official titles and last names to men — a frequent discussion during the 2016 campaign, when Hillary Clinton was often the recipient of sexist and gender-based attacks.

Donald Trump, who pronounces Harris’ first name incorrectly and has a long history of using race- and gender-based tactics , often calls her “crazy Kamala.” Republicans across the party have done the same for years — Democrats were outraged when David Perdue openly ridiculed her name in the Georgia Senate race in 2020.

But as Harris rapidly settles into her role as the Democratic nominee, she and her campaign are embracing “Kamala.” After three years of struggling to reset her image in Washington, it’s part of a strategy to highlight her long political resume — including her work as vice president — but also as “Kamala” to voters and constituents, a wife to “Dougie,” “Momala” to her two stepkids, an auntie and the Democrat who is suddenly resonating online with videos of her dancing, coconut and brat memes.

“I think she has a 98 percent name ID rate in this country now. Whether they pronounce it wrong or pronounce it right, everyone has to say Kamala. It’s amazing, little girls with big names,” said Lateefah Simon, who worked with Harris at the San Francisco district attorney’s office. “She’s not hiding her ethnicity. She’s not hiding who she is. She was first a public servant.”

People who have long known Harris say she sees using her first name as a way to be informal with voters and constituents — to send a message that she’s working for them, that they should hold her accountable.

And Harris knows the weight her name carries for women, for communities of color — the impact it has for them to see “Kamala” featured prominently in her campaigns. Simon, who is running for Congress in California, thought about this aspect when she considered her own congressional run.

“I was like, ‘No, it’s not ‘Simon for Congress. It’s Lateefah for Congress.’ Kamala’s name has depth of meaning. It is an ethnic and cultural name. And it was given to her by her mother. Black people are more than our last names. Our last names don’t often tell the story of where we’re from and who we are,” Simon said.

“So yes, the moniker on the website to give money says ‘Harris for President,’ but when she’s meeting folks, she’ll say, ‘Hi, I’m Kamala.’”

Harris isn’t the only candidate who has done this. Clinton leaned into her first name at times in 2016, and male candidates like Bernie Sanders , Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke have as well. But in the current political environment, the use of Harris’ first name in her bid for the White House has the power to subtly send other messages, too, noted Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. In Washington, where “Johns” and “Jons” make up 10 percent of the U.S. Senate, it’s a way for Harris to signal that she’s different at a time when voters were yearning for a shake-up in the race.

“She’s reminding voters that she is in fact different. In the context of this moment, when many voters are hungering for other options in their leadership, that may be really resonating. Not knowing their strategy, I think that could be a very smart move,” Sinzdak said.

It’s also a way to punch back at a time when Republican politicians are using her first name in an effort to strip her of her credentials, and to demean her, Sinzdak noted. Trump’s campaign, in attacking Harris on everything from the border to the economy, has released statements calling the stock market downturn the “Kamala crash” and “Kamalanomics.”

“It is a microaggression and a disrespect because you are refusing to call her by the name that her mama gave her, and that she chooses to be called. In that way, you are dismissing her, you are demeaning her, you are diminishing her and her own agency. It’s just disrespectful. But for her it’s — this is what my name is, call me by my name,” said Leah Daughtry, a longtime Harris ally and Democratic operative. “As Maya Angelou said, ‘when you know better, you do better.’ And what we have on the other side is a case of not wanting to know better — or knowing better and choosing not to do better.”

The Harris campaign has tried to strike a balance in its branding. When highlighting her work in the White House, campaign messaging refers to her as Vice President Harris, and on the campaign site, the official tagline is “Harris for President” or “Harris-Walz.” It’s also a balance Harris has tried to match in the past as a public official. As district attorney, she often used her first name with constituents. She viewed it as a way to shift the power dynamic, especially when communities of color have even less trust in government, let alone a prosecutor’s office.

“When she was with other electeds or other attorney generals, she would use the honorific in a formal setting. So it wasn’t that she didn’t believe in that as a gesture of respect, but when she was talking directly to voters, or constituents, she would usually say, ‘Just call me Kamala,’” said a person who worked with Harris while she was attorney general, granted anonymity to speak candidly about their experiences with the vice president. “I think that was a way to say like, you’re the boss. I’m working for you.”

This was just a piece of Harris’ efforts to try and build relationships with the communities she worked for. When there was a homicide in San Francisco during her time as district attorney, she’d tracked down the phone number of the victim’s mother or father. She would pick up the phone and say, “It’s Kamala Harris calling,” Simon said. At other times, community members, often female victims of a violent incident or a shooting, would come to the front desk in the district attorney’s office and say that they would only talk to Kamala.

“So she would end up meeting with folks who would usually be sent to like the victim services representative or the DA who was handling the case, but they would be like, ‘I will only talk to Kamala,” the person who worked with Harris as attorney general said. “She saw that as a really important opportunity to try to build some faith and trust in government, with communities who had lots of reasons not to have trust. For people who are in South Asian communities, Black communities, communities of color, it is meaningful for them to see her name displayed prominently rather than hidden.”

Harris’ run for president has particularly resonated with young voters, a voting bloc that was deeply disillusioned with another Trump-Biden rematch. She’s seen a huge jump in support — 16 points — among this group since last month, a momentum not only palpable at her rallies, but also on the internet, where her campaign has tapped into the very online generation’s meme culture.

It’s only fitting that this younger generation, which approaches names and formal titles differently than older generations, often refer to her as “Kamala,” Daughtry said.

“My nephew, he’s 19. This will be his first presidential election and he’s like, ‘Kamala, she’s really cool.’ Part of the coolness is that there’s not this big title they feel like they have to call her. He can identify with her,” she said.

“Madam vice president, of course that’s the title,” she continued. “But on a stage, on the trail, she’s Kamala.”