Introduction
The Presidential Election of 2024 is shaping up to be one of the most controversial, media focused, and iconic elections in recent American History. It is marked with many viral trends and moments, a historic candidacy and campaign, and some of the most controversial political events of the 21st century, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the conflict in Gaza, and the impeachment and subsequent insurrection trials of President Donald Trump. Though, at the heart of many of these moments and events, except for those surrounding Trump, lies Vice President Kamala Harris and her iconic campaign.
What is primarily interesting about this upcoming election is its focus on media as it relates to campaign and political/voter mobilization. Social media has become a defining force in culture in the past twenty years or so, infiltrating every facet of the zeitgeist and public square. This has led to the development of discussions and public forums in every sense of both concepts, being about the pressing issues facing humanity today, the controversy surrounding Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department’s Pitchfork score, and everything in between. This has also infiltrated American Politics--the use of social media in campaigns being popularized by Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign, and then in the 2016 election by both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, with their “chilling in Cedar Rapids” video and excessive Twitter use respectively. However, this social media campaigning has seemed to evolve into a monster of a tool, for better or for worse, in campaigning.
Kamala Harris’s social media campaign journey is interesting however, taking a much more hands-off yet greatly honed and intentional path. This stems from Kamala having a very interesting platform to build off of, taking progressive social justice policies while also trailblazing as both the first black and Asian-American woman to be Vice President, and nominee for President. She has made a name for herself in this sense, and with her progressive policies, has carefully developed a persona that has led to her formation of a media presence and campaign that can only be described as the “Harris Phenomenon”
The “Harris Phenomenon” refers to the carefully curated image and media presence that Kamala Harris has built up for herself in campaigning for the 2024 election, as well as the media response and widespread support she has received. It manifests in an identity that Harris has created in the media and public sphere in order to appeal to a widespread amount of peoplethrough a niche environment, such as the “Brat Summer” phenomenon, or the viral success of her ‘coconut tree’ video. Furthermore, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, she enjoyed a significant amount of viral moments, such as the examples previously described. This kicked off her viral media attention and success.
This created what will be the overarching topic of this article, the fact that Kamala Harris has been able to achieve what no other presidential candidate has, the status of being ‘cool’. For a while, the engagement of younger voters has been sort of negligent, as younger voters have been primarily liberal and unbothered, shrugging off politics as a losing game as most of the candidates have been out of touch with the younger cultural environment. However, Harris’ brat rebranding has been able to energize the younger voting base by cementing her status as the ‘cool girl’ who is able to understand and connect with younger voters who may or may not be interested in politics. She is now seen as in touch with younger voters, and while she may not completely understand, she is either able to put it off that she can, or she is too ‘campy’ or relatable to care. This is further pushed by her sympathizing with progressive policies, due to the fact that younger voters lean left in general. This amalgamation of the ‘cool girl’ persona she has garnered, combined with her newly adopted bipartisanship and media prominence, has created what is now known as the “Harris Phenomenon”.
Brief History of Harris’ Political Career
To start out, Kamala Harris was a career prosecutor, focusing on homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases, and she famously worked on three-strike cases for habitual offenders. In 2002, she ran and won for District Attorney of San Francisco, becoming the first person of color to win the election. She led a forceful term, clearing 27 out of 74 backlogged homicide cases in her first 6 months, pushed for higher bail in gun-related charges, and created a Hate Crimes Unit focusing on LGBTQ students and children. She won again in 2004, creating an Environmental Crimes Unit and expressing support for San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary city. She was then elected as Attorney General of California in 2010, also becoming the first woman, African-American and South Asian, to do so. She was also elected again in 2014. In her first term, she focused on consumer protection, criminal justice reform, and privacy rights. She secured major settlements against Quest Diagnostics, JPMorgan Chase, and Corinthian colleges as it related to consumer protection, and was able to recover billions for Californian citizens. She helped create the Homeowner Bill of Rights to fight exploitative foreclosure practices, and advocated for progressive reform such as gay panic defense.
She then ran for Senate in 2016, and won with over 60% of the vote, promising to protect immigrants from President Donald Trump as well as becoming the second Black woman and first South Asian senator in history. In her tenure as Senator, Harris pushed for progressive policies and reform, advocating for stricter gun legislation, the DREAM Act, national cannabis legalization, and healthcare and tax reform. She grew in popularity and became well known after her questioning of Trump appointees such as Jeff Sessions and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She was also an early co-sponsor of the controversial Green New Deal, an even larger marker of her early progressive policy due to her other leftist co-sponsors, as well as a marker of her commitment to green energy. She then went on, in 2020, to open the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, as well as start her 2020 Presidential Campaign.
Considered a top contender, she announced her candidacy and beat the record set by Bernie Sanders for the most donations raised in the day after an announcement. During her first Democratic presidential debate in 2019, she attacked President Biden on his history of racism, and her support rose afterward. However, in the aftermath of the second debate, she fell in the polls due to a poor performance, and in the months after, due to criticism from reformers on tough-on-crime policies she pursued, she withdrew due to shortage of funds and low support.
In May 2019, she was endorsed as the vice president to President Biden by the Congressional Black Caucus. In early March, Jim Clyburn suggested that Biden choose a black woman as his running mate, and within that same month Biden committed to choosing a woman. By that August, she was announced to be Biden’s running mate, and then became Vice President after Biden won the 2020 election.
During her time as Vice President, she broke the records for the most tie breaking votes cast in the first year, and most tie breaking votes of any vice president, casting 33 senate votes. She was also assigned to work with the Mexico and Northern Triangle countries to curb irregular migration and address its causes, leading to the Root Causes Strategy, which helped to gradually curb illegal immigration through the Southern border. She has been described by conservative outlets as the ‘border czar’, to tie her to the crisis at the Mexican-American border, however she has had no true control over the situation. She also allegedly played a key role in the Biden administration’s foreign policy, especially with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
2024 Election Bid
In July of 2024, Kamala Harris became the Democratic frontrunner in the election after President Joe Biden dropped out of the election and endorsed her as the nominee. She was endorsed by a variety of Democratic and Republican figures, including the Obamas, Bill Clinton, and surprisingly, Republican Liz Cheney. She then broke the record for the most campaign donations in a single day, with 81 million dollars in small dollar donations within the first 24 hours. She then secured the delegates necessary in early August through a virtual roll call, becoming the official nominee of the Democrat Party.
She has since had a strong campaign, announcing Governor of Minnosota Tim Walz as her Vice Presidential Pick, and participating in a debate with Former President Trump, which analysts resoundingly decided she won, despite alleged impartial fact checking by the CBS moderators. She has since participated in numerous media appearances, including interviews, an upcoming town hall at the time of writing this article, and others.
Her policy positions have shifted over the years, from progressive left to more left of center during her 2024 presidential campaign. Her domestic platform has grown similar to Biden’s, with emphasis on codifying abortion protections, LGBTQ+ rights, and minor legislation to address climate change. Furthermore she supports a pathway to citizenship on immigration, as well as higher border security and addressing root causes of immigration such as income inequality, a callback to her previously highly progressive policy. She also has diverted from the concept of “Bidenomics”, which focused on recovering from the economic crisis the world faces curing COVID-19, and increasing infrastructure and social safety-net spending through taxing higher-income individuals. She proposes a more populist agenda, what she calls an ‘opportunity economy’, focusing on lowering taxes to middle class individuals, lowering prices of groceries, and making housing more affordable through tax credits.
While it is true that she has shifted her policy positions over the years, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Her more progressive policies are defined by the context in which she helps them. She used to be the senator of California, a very blue state, so obviously her policies would be representative of the people she represents, ergo, more progressive. However, in recent years she has grown to represent the people of the United States, adopting a more centrist policy agenda. Will she stick to this in her presidency? Maybe not. However, criticizing her for her shifting policy positions is foolish, given that she is now more representative of the American people, making her a better candidate for President than she may have been five years ago.
The centerpiece of her campaign has been her media campaign strategies. Kamala Harris has had, perhaps, the most media focused campaign in American history, with a strong emphasis on celebrity endorsements, a strong backing of young and LGBTQ voters, and her status as the ‘cool girl’ in politics. There are 2 great examples of this, Brat Summer, and the ‘coconut tree’ video.
The ‘coconut tree’ video prompted Kamala Harris’ viral success, and skyrocketed her to mainstream internet stardom. It involves Harris giving a speech, in which she references something her mother used to tell her: “Everything is in context, I remember my mother used to tell me ‘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”. She emphasizes the importance of context to a statement and concept. This moment goes viral due to its irony, and the presence of Harris’ iconic laugh, which has become a defining part of her persona. It was then adopted by people on social media, particularly those in the LGBTQ community, or ‘Stan Twitter’. Known for iconic humor and absurdity, stan twitter adopted the ‘coconut tree’ meme, which was then leveraged as part of her campaign, as well as in addition to the Brat Summer Phenomenon.
“Brat Summer” was a term, again adopted by youth audiences, particularly the likes of Stan Twitter, that originated from the ‘BRAT’ album by pop star Charli XCX. The concepts surrounding Brat Summer include toxic positivity and the embracement of imperfection, which do not necessarily pertain to the Harris campaign’s adoption, but are still important to keep in mind. The momentum surrounding the campaign arose due to a simple tweet by the pop star in the middle of Brat Summer, Charli XCX, which simply read: “kamala IS brat”. This really caused Harris’ media frenzy to take off, prompting the creation of edit videos, a markedly Stan twitter technique, and the adoption of the concept itself by the Harris campaign.
This is the “Harris Phenomenon” in full swing: the importance of cultural placement, and the creation of a curated identity. Kamala Harris has placed herself in the cultural zeitgeist in such a way that it has generated something a candidate hasn’t really been able to do in a long while: excitement. The 2024 election before Biden’s sudden dropout was surrounded with pessimism and contempt, with the only charge behind the Democrats was a shared hatred for Donald Trump. Nobody was really excited for a 2nd Biden term, but they were terrified for a 2nd Trump term, given that he was surrounded by controversy, criminal proceedings, and a potential disaster like the overturning of another court case by a Trump-controlled Supreme Court like Roe v Wade. However, when Kamala Harris became the nominee, people became excited and optimistic at the prospect of her becoming President, and this was because of a combination of her placement in culture, the identity she had procured for herself, and a stroke of luck at attaining ‘brat status’.
Kamala presents the importance of a persona and curated identity. She capitalized off of the fact that neither Biden nor Trump was well liked, due to them being old, almost senile white men with about as much force behind them as a retirement community dance-off. So, she intelligently placed herself in such a way to where she could present herself as an energetic and optimistic prospect for young voters. This combined with her effortless adoption of youth-oriented trends set Kamala up for her assumed persona. She procured an identity of someone who is not only ‘hip’ and in touch with young voters, something Biden and Trump could only dream to achieve, but also someone who is ironically funny. Whether it’s an absurd clip of her dancing with a young marching band, or talking about falling out of coconut trees, she presents herself in such a way that she doesn’t take herself too seriously, and if there is anything that Gen Z and social media loves, it’s a state of being ever-so-slightly unserious.
So, what is the “Harris Phenomenon”? Simple, it is the curated identity and cultural placement Kamala Harris has set herself in, leading to unprecedented media success, particularly among young voters, and is responsible for the re-energizing of the Democrat party.
Implications on the Political Landscape, and Conclusion
Kamala Harris’ implications and effects on the political landscape are abundant, and simple. Should she win, she would become the first female president, a great achievement in itself. It would shatter a major glass ceiling, as well as set precedent for a female president, thereby making it easier by proxy for women to get elected in the future. Furthermore, it would underline the importance of media campaigning for candidates, as well as underline just how masterful Harris’ culture placement and personal building was.
However, also expect, despite a win or loss, the emergence of more centrist and populist policies to arise amongst the Democrat party, as well as a right-leaning shift overall, at least economically. This is due to both criticisms of the Biden administration's economic policy, due to high rates of inflation and price increases despite evidence suggesting that the economy under Biden improved, especially as it relates to jobs, inflation reduction, and GDP growth, and also populist policies proposed by Harris. Despite this however, with a Harris win, the country will see further liberal social policies, as well as greater taxes on the upper class.
Whether Kamala Harris exits this election with a win or a loss, it is clear that she has left a lasting mark on the Democrat party, and campaigning as a whole. Her campaign marks a new era for media marketing and energizing a younger voter base, and underscores that through a carefully curated persona, and a little bit of unseriousness, a campaign can bridge gaps between ages, parties, and disparities in enthusiasm. The “Harris Phenomenon” may mark a new path to the White House, one where cultural resonance and media manipulation may become the marker of America’s future electorate.
Resources
“Charli on X: "kamala IS brat."” X.com, 22 July 2024, https://x.com/charli_xcx/status/1815182384066707861?lang=en. Accessed 19 October 2024.
Goodman, Jordi, et al. “Participatory and Social Media to Engage Youth: From the Obama Campaign to Public Health Practice.” National Library of Medicine, 2011, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3719417/#:~:text=Barack%20Obama's%20successful%20campaign%20for,reach%20populations%20in%20political%20activity.
“Kamala Harris' Viral 'Coconut Tree' Quote, Explained.” Forbes, 22 July 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/07/21/kamala-harris-coconut-tree-quote-explained-what-she-meant-and-why-its-going-viral-as-biden-drops-out/. Accessed 23 October 2024.
Lumby, Tommy. “Is US economy better now than under Trump?” BBC, 2 September 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xl5vnlzpwo. Accessed 23 October 2024.
Tomlinson, Hugh. “New woe for Kamala Harris as another adviser quits.” The Times, 17 March 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fresh-woe-for-kamala-harris-as-another-adviser-quits-zssczgzlt. Accessed 22 October 2024.
Uribe, Maria Ramirez. “'Border czar'? Kamala Harris assigned to tackle immigration's causes, not border security.” PolitiFact, 24 July 2024, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/24/republican-national-committee-republican/border-czar-kamala-harris-assigned-to-tackle-immig/. Accessed 22 October 2024.