Kamala Harris Makes ‘Brat Summer’ Appeal to Gen Z Voters with Meme Remixes of Her Cringe-Worthy Public Flops

Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is seeking to paint the vice president as “down with the kids” by embracing Gen Z trends like “brat summer” and memes that have spread like wildfire across the internet remixing some of her most cringe-worthy public flops.

“With age and fitness for office posing such central questions in the 2024 race so far, the Harris campaign’s ability to play into the memes could engage young voters who get their news from social media and shake off the traditional stiffness of campaign communications,” Axios reported on Monday.

The most prominent example of Harris’s team attempting to engage young people is its echo of one of the hottest pop-grunge albums of the summer, from pop star Charlie XCX called Brat. As Glamour describes, “brat summer is an aesthetic and a way of life” inspired by the album with the lime green cover, and is “the sonic equivalent of a grimy, sweaty dance floor.” The album represents a stark departure from the pink Barbie-themed summer of 2023.

“It is all deep beats and manic energy. But, as many critics have noted, all of this feral party-girl energy is laced with a vaguely unsettling dose of millennial anxiety,” the Glamour piece reads.

Charlie XCX has explained “brat” as “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and like maybe says some like dumb things sometimes, who like feels herself but then also like maybe has a breakdown… It’s brat, you’re brat, that’s brat.”

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A post shared by Charli (@charli_xcx)

The Harris campaign’s full embrace of the trend came after the Brat performer herself took to X to proclaim “kamala is brat,” just hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris.

Following the performer’s viral tweet, the Harris HQ X account mimicked the lime green cover design of the Brat album to lean into the trend — all while memes spread on China-owned TikTok remixing viral Harris comments to songs from Brat.

@flextillerson

kamala harris edit to 360 by charli xcx. brat presidency #kamalaharris #kamala #biden #harris2024 #charli #charlixcx #brat #360

♬ original sound – aly

Internet users have also edited clips of the vice president dancing and explaining how to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey, both of which went viral. A particularly viral clip from 2023 — the one in which Harris said “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” — has sparked a drove of coconut-themed memes.

The coconut tree audio had been used more than 3,000 times on TikTok as of Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing data from the app.

Chris Mowrey, a Democratic social media influencer with 340,000 TikTok followers, told Reuters he believe internet moments can ultimately translate to the ballot box.

“It’s very hard to understand Gen Z unless you’re Gen Z,” Mowrey said, referring to young people born between 1997 and 2012.

“Young voters vote significantly more based on just personality and, like, vibes,” he said.

Whether the strategy pays off remains to be seen — so far, Harris has lower ratings with young voters than former President Donald Trump. A left-leaning Quinnipiac poll released on Monday found that 55 percent of voters ages 18 to 34 have an “unfavorable” opinion of Harris, compared to 40 percent who feel the same about Trump. However, young voters have a higher opinion of Harris than 81-year-old Biden, with 67 percent of young voters saying they have an “unfavorable” opinion of him.

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