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“Americans love being part of a zeitgeist, being part of a cultural moment,” says Katherine Haenschen, a Northeastern political media expert.
Vice President Kamala Harris is embracing meme culture, with Venn diagrams and coconut trees sprouting across the internet and a presidential campaign X account referencing the recent album “BRAT” by singer Charli XCX.
Northeastern University political media expert Katherine Haenschen says this embrace showcases Harris’ attempt to establish her campaign as not only a political movement, but also a cultural movement — particularly to younger voters.
“Americans love being part of a zeitgeist, being part of a cultural moment,” says Haenschen, assistant professor of communications studies and political science at Northeastern. “I think part of Harris’ appeal and how she acts is very well suited to this viral video, meme, TikTok moment we find ourselves in.”
Memes have followed Harris since her rise to national prominence.
These include the coconut tree — a reference to a May 2023 speech in which Harris quoted her mother as saying “’I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’” — and Venn diagrams — a favorite visual of the vice president’s.
this video is literally like medicine to me. i watch it once every week or two and every time i do i get an enduring hit of light euphoria for the next 45 minutes pic.twitter.com/eIF6Rwiir0— charlie squire (@evil_female) February 9, 2024
this video is literally like medicine to me. i watch it once every week or two and every time i do i get an enduring hit of light euphoria for the next 45 minutes pic.twitter.com/eIF6Rwiir0
And while coconut trees had been appearing across social media and the internet for weeks given speculation that President Joe Biden was dropping his reelection bid, the memes took off on Sunday when Biden — himself no stranger to embracing memes — announced that he was suspending his campaign and endorsed Harris.
Harris allies including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and the influential PAC Emily’s List adopted the coconut tree imagery in endorsing Harris.
The campaign got in on the action — adopting the Venn diagram meme and leaning into an endorsement from singer Charli XCX and making its own version of the artist’s lime-green album cover.
“I would argue that, in a very odd situation, this looks to me like a very successful digital campaign launch,” says Rahul Bhargava, an assistant professor at Northeastern who studies how information spreads over the internet.
Bhargava says that he generally doesn’t go looking for memes but is seeing coconuts and the brat memes “all over the place.”
“The idea that Harris owns the depiction of herself on the internet is a very important thing,” Bhargava continues. “Memes are a great way to do that because they can be tongue-in-cheek, they can be silly in ways that other forms of getting your message out cannot, and they spread in a way that is more popular, so it reaches audiences that aren’t watching the Sunday morning news shows.”
Bhargava says that the Harris memes operate in a kind of “positive feedback loop.”
“You get all these people to endorse you, you raise more money, you get more memes being made, people raise more money and more people endorse you,” Bhargava says.
To Haenschen, the campaign is doing more than having a little online fun.
“There’s a real dissatisfaction among the electorate to what has been referred to as the gerontocracy of American politics,” Haenschen says. “There’s a desire among Gen X, millennials and Gen Z to see someone different.”
And Harris, 59, and at the cusp of Gen X, is telegraphing that image of something different by leaning into internet culture, Haenschen says.
It comes as Democratic leaders hope younger voters will reevaluate the presidential campaign.
“One of the things that was particularly concerning with Biden’s polling was a lack of support among young voters, particularly those 18-29 years old,” Haenschen says.
She notes that younger voters tend to vote Democratic and are a crucial voting bloc for Democrats — particularly in close elections as the 2024 contest is expected to be.But Biden’s stance on Israel and Palestine “lost him a lot of support” among youth, Haenschen says. Meanwhile, the president’s “evolution” on abortion rights and LGBTQIA rights seems out of touch for generations who view such rights as a “no-brainer,” as Haenschen says.
Harris presents a contrast.
“Older generations have to ‘evolve’ on issues — she’s already there,” Haenschen says of Harris. “Harris is to the left of Biden on Israel/Palestine and way left on abortion rights.”
She also presents a contrast with Trump, 78.
@northeasternglobalnews Kamala Harris is leaning into the #meme campaign strategy. #Northeastern experts explain why this may be a good decision ahead of the November election. #President #KamalaHarris #KamalaHQ #DonaldTrump #Election2024 #Democrats #Republicans #GOP #Memes #BRAT #BRATSummer #CharlieXCX ♬ original sound – NGN
Kamala Harris is leaning into the #meme campaign strategy. #Northeastern experts explain why this may be a good decision ahead of the November election. #President #KamalaHarris #KamalaHQ #DonaldTrump #Election2024 #Democrats #Republicans #GOP #Memes #BRAT #BRATSummer #CharlieXCX
“Because she’s the younger candidate, I bet there was more desire to use meme stuff, and that’ll mobilize more volunteers, which is the other piece of the story,” Bhargava says. “They had a huge uptick of volunteer sign-ups in addition to money and, in many ways, that’s ground game – that’s what gets out the vote.’
Not that there aren’t some potential hazards to getting involved with memes. After all, they can be used against a candidate as well.
“By far in the US, the right is far better at making memes and spreading them than the left has been,” Bhargava says. “Memes were one of the tools that the far-right used to influence the mainstream conversation to inject white-supremacist goals.”
Haeschen also notes that as a Black and Asian American woman, Harris will almost certainly face memes (and other forms of speech) showcasing misogynoir — the combination of misogyny and anti-Black racism toward Black and bi-racial women.
“I expect that there will be some problematic stuff on the internet, but I think it’s an open question about who will be susceptible to that, and who will respond to it,” Haenschen says.
“I think there’s a growing awareness already among supporters of Harris to be on the lookout for this, be able to respond to it, and to call it out.”
That may help; Bhargava notes that there is a strong Black subculture of memes.
“The question is whether that subculture will spill over into Harris’ campaign because of her diverse identities as a Black American and South Asian American,” Bhargava says.
As to whether it will influence the election, embracing memes may be worth a try.
“At the end of the day, people will make up their minds on who to vote for based on the issues that are most important to them and also whether they feel a candidate represents them,” Haenschen says. “People need to be reached in different ways, people have different issues to be addressed in different ways, and they need to decide for themselves which candidate matches their preferences.”