Politicians have long tried to secure the youth vote, but this summer the presidential race is leaning hard into pop culture references. Could it work?
Pop artist Charli XCX posted on X just after Kamala Harris announced her bid for the presidency this summer that “kamala IS brat,” garnering 54 million views.
It didn’t take long for the campaign to change its headquarters page on X, formerly Twitter, to a shade of lime green to match the singer’s newest album. It was a way to appeal to Gen Z and millennials just before the election and could only have been executed well by a younger social media team.
What is ‘brat’?
In describing what being ‘brat’ means in her own words, Charli XCX has said “honest,” “a little messy,” “confident,” “having fun” and “blunt.”
The album’s digital marketing made it easy for users on social media to claim this summer to be a ‘brat summer’ (similar to last year’s Barbie-themed summer or “Hot Girl Summer” in 2019).
So where does Harris come into all this?
A clip including remarks from a speech Harris gave at a swearing-in ceremony had resurfaced and became a meme earlier this summer. The meme primarily formed around a line from the speech, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” which users found comedic due to the lack of context provided by the clip alone.
By mid-July, numerous videos had been posted remixing the clip with Charli XCX’s song “360” and other pop songs.
The Harris HQ campaign’s mobilization team, which is responsible for fundraising content, developing content for accounts across the platforms (@KamalaHQ, @KamalaHarris), are all Gen Z, according to a spokesperson from the Harris for President campaign.
The spokesperson added that a major aspect of the campaign’s strategy for reaching youths is breaking through a “very crowded media environment,” in which people not only get their news from social media but have a feed that differs from person to person due to algorithms.
“We need to be able to infiltrate those spaces, get our message into the spaces that are traditionally nonpolitical, to mobilize and engage disengaged and disillusioned voters who we know we need as part of our coalition to put Kamala Harris in the Oval Office,” a spokesperson from the Harris for President campaign said.
They added that behind the memes, jokes, edits and witty captions, they form a visual contrast into spaces that are traditionally nonpolitical between “Trump and Harris,” “[Tim] Walz and [JD] Vance,” and “Vice President Harris’ vision for the future of the country versus Trump’s.”
“But it goes beyond that because it creates this cycle where there’s a lot of organic enthusiasm. … It’s a concerted effort to speak in the language of the platform. So to do that, we are really leveraging these viral moments and trends that we’re seeing across the internet to break through,” a spokesperson for the Harris for President campaign said.
Since the candidate change, Biden’s endorsement of Harris and the account’s leveraging of viral moments on TikTok, the KamalaHQ account has grown seven times over, from 440,000 followers to 3.8 million.
Many videos on the KamalaHQ and Kamala Harris social media accounts appear similar to content one would find on a fandom account, including memes, pop music and sounds that are used to create edits; the account has also included references to singer Chappell Roan, the boy band One Direction and rapper Meghan Thee Stallion.
Texas State University professor Louie Valencia studies ways young people create social change through mediums including technology, social media and celebrity. Some celebrities like Madonna and Harry Styles have been passionate about participating in social and political activism and encourage their fans to take action, as well, Valencia said.
Even if a fan doesn’t care much about an issue, sometimes the fact that the celebrity they support does is enough to pique their interest and encourage them to, at the very least, look into a cause, which can be a key way to recruit new supporters.
“The celebrity doesn’t have to be the initial link between these people … but once they’re linked, they have a way of connecting other people, other issues and other interests, as well,” Valencia said.
Swifties for Kamala
The X account Swifties for Kamala launched July 21. In just 19 days, the account gained over 55,000 followers and another 10,000 since then.
Founded by 22-year-old university student Emerald Medrano, the account is powered by a coalition of Taylor Swift fans that aims to “help get democratic candidates elected up and down the ballot.”
Leigh Bauer, 23, is one of the many Swifties who help run the account. As a social media manager for the initiative, she oversees content published across the brand’s social media accounts, including X, Instagram, TikTok and Threads. She also helps handle campaign management and the account’s analytics.
“I’ve been feeling really hopeless after the presidential debate and everything that’s been going on, and I was really excited to see that there was movement and changes were happening,” Bauer said. “I think that motivated me to just be like, ‘Oh, I could be a part of this.’ … I really believe in the power of fandom and the power of it to get things done.”
Bauer says the account started off with a group of four, but the account’s management has grown to 20.
“There are so many different people working behind the scenes on this that all, I hope, have their voices valued and have their voices contributing to make this one diverse brand voice,” Bauer said.
She says the people who help run the account are of all different races, genders, ages and sexualities. Many of them work full-time jobs.
“People are always like, ‘Be afraid of them [Taylor Swift fans].’ And it’s like ‘Yeah. Because we know how to get together, work together and organize,’” Bauer said.
Posts from the account combine references from Swift’s songs with updates on Harris’ campaign and suggested actions for followers, such as registering to vote, donating to Harris’ campaign or volunteering.
Bauer says being active in politics can feel intimidating for many citizens because they think they need to be experts before participating in political conversations. She added that others are made to feel that they are too young to understand political issues.
“Our goal is to, at least for me, to ensure that it’s something that is accessible and that people can get excited about — and it’s not this big scary thing that’s happening in the world right now.”
Bauer says Harris HQ’s campaign on social media has resonated well with young adults.
“I think [people] have forgotten that politics and politicians are not life sucking, disappointing and frustrating. And that there can be joy in political candidates, and there can be funniness, happiness and excitement,” Bauer said. “I think the content that they’re putting out is trying to remind people that politics can be fun and, you know, we can use silly memes and TikTok audios to convey our messaging.”
Fandoms and modern politics
Fandoms support an individual whose personality or actions they find to be positive or identify with a figure (or figures) who reflects their values. And fandoms cultivate community (or communities) with others who feel similarly on at least one of those ideas.
So do political parties.
“Dwight Eisenhower had cartoon buttons of him. Kennedy was known for having all of these sorts of promo, merch and swag around his election. That’s been in use for decades now. … They’ve used all these things that oftentimes are used or sold at a Taylor Swift concert or Harry Styles concert,” Valencia said. “These similar tactics are used both by artists who are trying to promote their music and by politicians who are trying to promote themselves and their politics.”
Both communities also risk participating in “group think” or an echo chamber, leading them to trust unverified information or act in a way that goes against one’s morals once the community aspect is no longer relevant.
“Everybody should be involved in politics. What we should encourage is the more accurate understanding of information, how to look at different sources, how to be able to ask questions, and then sometimes not have answers and wait,” Valencia said. “We live in a society, because of the internet, where we see one thing and we need to have the answer right now. And maybe the answer is not there, so we try to fill it in with whatever we imagine. And that’s not helpful, either.”
Valencia said that under no circumstance does he believe society should discourage fans or people generally from being politically active.
He added that what society is observing in modern politics, such as with Harris HQ’s social media strategy, is that presidential campaigns can and are happening quicker than they used to.
“We’re suddenly in this faster-moving world where maybe three months is long enough to actually get yourself nominated and share your ideas with the population. And part of this is because of the internet. It’s so much easier now to get your ideas out there, shared and understood than it would have been in a pre-internet age,” Valencia said.
Gen Z and voter turnout
According to the Civics Center, 4 million Americans turn 18 every year, but less than 30% register to vote.
Barriers to registration include lack of infrastructure and comprehensive data, as well as youth invisibility — meaning that candidates typically target only “likely voters,” which completely overlooks teen voters, according to their website.
Bexar County resident Elizabeth Chalmers will vote in her first presidential election this November. She attended Youth Do Vote’s event at Palo Alto College in late July.
Youth Do Vote is a nonprofit organization and “collaborative network of Bexar County school administrators, educators, and students as well as election officials and local nonprofits that help demystify voting and elections.”
“This has been something that I’ve been excited for since I got into freshman year,” Chalmers said. “This is an election that I personally believe we haven’t seen before, considering one of the candidates just recently stepped aside and now we’re having the vice president come in so late in the game.”
Chalmers said she used to doubt her vote would have an impact, but she said working as an election clerk in May changed her mind and solidified how much she believes her voice matters.
She said she believes intimidation and lack of knowledge about the election process are the biggest barriers to voting by others her age.
“In general, I feel like sometimes a lot of older generations, they see that and they take it as, you know, apathy [or] avoidance. But in reality, it’s just a lack of education and also just intimidation,” Chalmers said. “We’re still learning. We’ve only been on this planet for, what, 18 years? We’re still trying to figure it out, and we’re not born into this world knowing that information.”
Chalmers noted that the rapidly evolving media landscape introduced a whole new minefield for processing accurate information, a key skill for participating in an election.
“Kids have a little bit different attention spans. It’s just how we’ve grown up. Especially with TikTok. Everything’s very fast paced, and so presenting information in that way —social media is a great way to do that because it is quicker,” Chalmers said. “And the challenge with that is ‘how do you get so much into so little?’”
To combat misinformation on social media, Chalmers says educators and adults should aim to teach kids how to fact-check and provide them with resources so they do not take information on social media at face value.
“News has always evolved and changed, and so we shouldn’t be afraid of the change. We should embrace it and find new ways to adapt and overcome it. … It’s really about education and being news literate,” Chalmers said.
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Charli XCX.
