Kamala Harris campaign kicks off with big boost from memes

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Just hours after Vice President Kamala Harris announced the beginning of her 2024 presidential campaign, she became the subject of memes all across the internet.

The memes have featured coconut trees, the color lime green and the British pop star Charli XCX, all fueling excitement and a big boost for the new campaign.

Much of the social media firestorm began after by the singer tweeted “kamala IS brat,” a reference to the name of Charli XCX’s, most recent album with a lime green cover.

“This idea of you can be both the silliest version of yourself and the most serious version of yourself all in one is kind of what I think it means to be brat. And I think that’s what Kamala Harris is,” said Emma Mont, the Vice President of Organizermemes. The group is a collective of former political organizers turned professional memers who help Democratic campaigns and non-profits with social media.

Mont thinks Harris took off on social media because so many young people were relieved after she entered the race and felt like they could relate to her.

“It’s a collective sigh of relief that we finally, like, we have a candidate that gets everyone excited, not just a specific part of the Democratic Party, but like we have. We love young people. We want someone who can be silly. We want someone who can be kind of real with us,” she said.

Coconut trees have been prominent in many of the memes because of a story that Vice President Harris told back in May 2023.

“My mother used to she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she 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?” said Harris.

“Kamala Harris like telling the story her of the way her mom used to say, do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? Like something about that is so authentically goofy, and it really speaks to the kind of vibe that Gen Z has,” said Mont.

Concerns about the Harris memes becoming uncool or that brat summer is dead have been brewing among some internet users, but Mont does not believe Harris will be the one to kill it.

“Like if we decide as a collective, that brat summer is dead, I don’t think it’ll be the Harris team. I think it will be all of the other apparatuses around. Like it will be, because CNN talks about it too much.” she said.

Mont also said that if Harris does not acknowledge the memes directly, she should remain popular with young people.

“As long as she doesn’t come out and say like, ‘I am brat,’ it will stay funny and it can evolve.”

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