Vice President Kamala Harris, who is currently vying for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, appears to be resorting to memes meant to make fun of her.
Harris’ campaign seems to be trying a little political judousing her opponents’ attacks against her while embracing online meme culture.
“Kamala IS a brat,” British pop star Charli XCX posted on X just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy as the Democratic candidate and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as party leader against former President Donald Trump in November’s nationwide election.
To some, the “Brat” tweet might seem cryptic or confusing. For Generation Z—and increasingly for the Kamala Harris campaign itself and the Democratic Party—the message couldn’t be clearer: Harris is the meme candidate.
Shortly after Biden’s dramatic announcement, the official campaign account was converted from @BidenHQ on X to @KamalaHQ and is already fully embracing Harris’s internet appeal, which some observers believe could represent a significant turning point in the election.
From coconuts to Venn diagrams, the Harris team and her supporters have turned the vice president’s virality – as well as some of her most embarrassing moments, which her opponents once viewed as signs of her incompetence – into profile-building symbols and soundbites that juvenile voters in particular can get behind.
The “Brat” meme came about because a musician used the term to describe “the girl who is a little bit messy and likes to party and maybe says stupid things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but still parties.”
Harris’ team is also using the “coconut tree” motif, which is linked to a video of a speech by the Vice President last year.
The @KamalaHQ account’s bio – “Provide context” – refers to another popular meme associated with the vice president.
The meme has its roots in a speech Harris gave at the White House in May 2023, in which she shared an anecdote: “My mother would sometimes give us a hard time and say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'” she said, laughing. “You exist in the context of everything you live in 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 mounted in recent weeks for Biden to step down and put Harris at the top of the ballot, one Democratic activist told CNN he was “stuffed with coconut pills” (a play on the alt-right “Red Pill” meme). Social media users joked about “Operation Coconut Tree” and a “Coconut Republic,” and Washington-area bars began serving coconut-inspired cocktails.
Prominent Democrats have begun adding coconut and tree emojis to their bios on social media and elsewhere to express solidarity with Harris.
The Harris campaign is also capitalizing on the “Venn diagram” saga that emerged after the vice president gave a speech in 2022 in which she expressed her admiration for the diagrams.
“I love Venn diagrams,” Harris said in October 2022. “I really do. I love Venn diagrams. There’s just something special about those three circles and analyzing where the intersections are, right?”
The RNC compiled a one-minute compilation of her praises of the charts and called it “embarrassing.”
But on Sunday, @KamalaHQ picked up the meme with a modern Venn diagram of her own, depicting the intersection of Biden’s and her campaign as “holding Trump accountable.”
If executed correctly, this strategy could win out. It’s similar to the way former President Donald Trump’s supporters seized on the “deplorable” comment Hillary Clinton made about her during the 2016 campaign. Harris’ campaign team appears to be trying to operate the right’s derision to its advantage.
There is a caveat here, however. Focusing too much on highlighting these stereotypes could backfire, as it would only draw more attention to Harris’ slip-ups and embarrassing remarks during speeches and interviews, putting her back in the spotlight. In fact, there are plenty of such moments for Republicans to exploit, as the vice president has a penchant for giving her opponents much-needed ammunition to operate against them—especially in the digital space.
