In today’s society, social media has snuck its way into almost every aspect of our daily lives, and it seems even political campaigns have turned to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter to garner attention and encourage engagement. From targeted ads to viral posts, hashtags to memes the political sphere is seemingly being taken over by GenZ. But these advancements come with pressing questions: Is social media truly bringing about the needed change in our political landscape? Or is it promoting propaganda and taking the depth and meaning away from a political party’s policies and decisions? Let’s unpack these questions together, shall we?
Social Media has become a huge springboard for many new and upcoming political campaigns and the most notable, newest instance would be the Kamala Harris campaign. After President Joe Biden dropped out of the election race this year America was waiting to see who would become the next candidate for the Democratic Party, with many doubting Vice President Kamala Harris to step up. However, the nation was shocked when the VP announced that she would be the new candidate for the election and was later endorsed by the party to do so. As soon as this news came a quote from one of Harris’ began resurfacing and thrust her into the spotlight of social media. The quote is “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.” This quote went viral on TikTok with millions of people interacting and making videos about said quote along with countless remixes and edits. This revolutionized Harris’ campaign. ‘KamalaHQ’ is a TikTok account with an ever-growing following that began making TikToks aimed at younger audiences. With the page having over 3.6 million followers and her own TikTok account garnering over 4.5 million followers only in the last 2 months is exponential growth.
Utilizing viral songs, sounds, and memes such as “brat summer, the coconut tree memes, “femininomenon” and other influencer and celebrity endorsements including the Obamas, Beyonce, Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Kesha, Cardi B and so many more. These trends and endorsements have skyrocketed the impact of the campaign. These numbers are now being reflected in the number of younger voters, under 34, in America which has skyrocketed 700% only within 48 hours of President Joe Biden endorsing VP Kamala Harris. As well as raising over $280 million. Many TikTok pages exclaim their excitement for the elections now that Vice President Harris is taking the stage. With the use of social media Kamala Harris’ campaign has become more inclusive and accessible to a wide range of audiences. And it will hopefully lead to a higher voter turnout among the younger generations now and to come.
However many have begun to question the validity of the campaign because of its large social media presence. It is safe to assume that some people a part of the older generations see this shift from traditional media, Newspapers, magazine or TV interviews, to TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram as an unprofessional one since, still today influencers are shunned for their career choice by older generations. Since the DNC, Harris has met with many influencers but the traditional media seems to be left on the back burner. Some have come to question the reliability of the influencers she includes in her campaigns. As her campaign continues to grow and her support with it, it is fasctinating to think that a lot of her attention was garnered off of an app with the support of GenZ and our ability to make anything go viral, even a coconut tree. This change in campaign must be utilized and accepted because social media is not go anywhere and neither are the younger generations. I am excited to see what other new campaign ideas they come up with and how these will reflect in the election to come.
Kamala IS Brat- CharliXCX
NextGenPolitics 
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