--- title: Kamala Harris Is Using Social Media to Reach Young Voters description: Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has embraced social media trends and viral memes to engage with young voters. canonical: https://time.com/7017076/kamala-harris-memes-social-media-young-voters/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-09-03T16:34:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:18.280Z article:section: Politics og:title: Kamala Harris Is Using Social Media to Reach Young Voters og:description: How Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has embraced social media trends and viral memes to engage with young voters. og:url: https://time.com/7017076/kamala-harris-memes-social-media-young-voters/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a1a1bbcf81521ad/698a5a79b3fce3d33a0cd8e9/GettyImages-2168372909.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Campaign og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kamala Harris Is Using Social Media to Reach Young Voters twitter:description: How Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has embraced social media trends and viral memes to engage with young voters. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1a1a1bbcf81521ad/698a5a79b3fce3d33a0cd8e9/GettyImages-2168372909.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kamala Harris Is Using Social Media to Reach Young Voters > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=5450196e-59a4-4aa7-9399-2b89400563d2&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Kamala Harris’ DNC Speech Showed a Prosecutor Ready For Her Rival [Watch (HLS stream): Kamala Harris’ DNC Speech Showed a Prosecutor Ready For Her Rival](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8hza0hKe.m3u8) (4:07)  _Published 2024-08-23. At once a biography and a promise, Harris’ speech on Thursday accepting her Democratic Party’s nomination was a measured blend of aspiration and assurance, a guide for the next 10 weeks of what is certainly going to be a grueling grind toward Election Day._ by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Sep 3, 2024 4:34 PM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris shakes hands with supporters during a campaign rally at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia on Thursday, August 29, 2024. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris shakes hands with supporters during a campaign rally at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia on Thursday, August 29, 2024. Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post— Getty Images by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Sep 3, 2024 4:34 PM UTC Vice President KamalaHarris’campaign has embraced social media trends and viral memes to engage with young voters—a strategy that has propelled her campaign online and set an implicit contrast with the octogenarian she replaced on the ticket and her 78-year-old opponent. After Charli XCX posted on X [“kamala IS brat”](https://time.com/7003038/kamala-harris-charli-xcx-brat-summer/)—a reference to the singer’s latest album, _Brat_—the night President Joe Biden [announced he was ending his campaign](https://time.com/7001153/joe-biden-drop-out-announcement/) and [endorsed Harris](https://time.com/7000985/biden-endorses-kamala-harris/) for the Democratic nomination, the official Harris campaign account changed its header to [match](https://time.com/7003038/kamala-harris-charli-xcx-brat-summer/) the color and font of the album cover. The bio for the Harris campaign’s main account—”Providing context”—is a reference to another meme stemming from a 2023 [speech](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/05/10/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-at-swearing-in-ceremony-of-commissioners-for-the-white-house-initiative-on-advancing-educational-equity-excellence-and-economic-opportunity-for-hispanics/) in which Harris quoted her mother as saying,“‘You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” before adding, “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” The moment went viral and Harris supporters have claimed the coconut and tree emojis. The campaign’s [TikTok account](https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq?lang=en) has also often used trending audio to [promote Harris](https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq/photo/7407524365232917790?lang=en) or [take jabs](https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq/photo/7408277140237733166?lang=en) at [former President Donald Trump](https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/) and his [running mate J.D. Vance](https://time.com/6998873/why-trump-chose-j-d-vance-for-vice-president/). **Read More:** [_The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris_](https://time.com/7009317/reintroduction-of-kamala-harris/) The Harris campaign is trying to meet young voters where they are. Nearly half of TikTok users in the U.S. between the ages of 18-29 say they use the social media platform to keep up with politics, according to a recent report from the [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/08/20/about-half-of-tiktok-users-under-30-say-they-use-it-to-keep-up-with-politics-news/). “Voters are quite literally everywhere," says Seth Schuster, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign. "So it's important that we are everywhere people are consuming their news." He adds that in a "fragmented" and "polarized" landscape, the Harris campaign wants to be on a number of different platforms. "That is the North Star of the campaign. We have to break through this media environment" to connect with voters, Schuster says. Kamala HQ, the campaign’s main social media account, has 1.3 million followers on [X](https://x.com/kamalahq?lang=en) and 4 million on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq?lang=en). According to the campaign, the account’s following on TikTok doubled overnight on July 21, when the page transformed from Biden HQ to Kamala HQ after Biden [ended his re-election campaign](https://time.com/7001028/why-joe-biden-stepped-down/) and endorsed Harris. **Read More:** [_The Kamala Harris Campaign Is Embracing the Memes_](https://time.com/7001188/kamala-harris-memes-campaign-brat-coconuts-unburdened-context-venn-diagrams/) The campaign’s efforts to reach young people online extend beyond memes. In August, [more than 200 content creators were given credentials](https://www.npr.org/2024/08/21/1198913105/influencers-online-content-creators-democratic-national-convention) for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago. At least one content creator spoke each night of the convention. Convention spokesperson Emily Soong said in a statement that content creators would “play a critical role in making sure more Americans than ever before can engage with our convention and hear the story of the Harris-Walz ticket.” According to a DNC official, this year’s DNC hosted the most content creators ever credentialed for a convention for either major political party. Elizabeth Booker Houston—a 34-year-old lawyer, comedian, and content creator who has more than 287,000 followers on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@bookersquared?lang=en)—was one of the creators who attended the convention. Houston, who lives in the Washington, D.C. area and often posts about law and politics on her social media platforms, says she wanted to get “behind the scenes” content and encourage her followers to vote in the 2024 election. While at the DNC, she spoke with politicians, delegates, and other convention attendees, [posting](https://www.tiktok.com/@bookersquared/video/7405308911856782622?lang=en) some of the [conversations](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-9NvW-guzC/?igsh=bHA1eDRwcDVoNGh3) on her accounts. Not all the creators who attended the convention typicallypost political content on their social media platforms. Merrick Hanna, a 19-year-old content creator based in Los Angeles who has more than 32 million followers on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@merrickhanna?lang=en), usually posts dancing and visual effects videos. He was surprised when he was invited to the convention by an influencer [marketing](https://nypost.com/2024/08/20/us-news/inside-the-democratic-partys-plan-to-recruit-5000-influencers/) agency [affiliated](https://www.businessinsider.com/influencers-dnc-democratic-national-convention-traditional-media-journalist-digital-strategy-2024-8) with the Harris campaign, but decided to take the opportunity. “I went in with the mindset that I really didn’t want to share any of my political beliefs because I don’t think that people… should be forming political opinions based on a TikTok dancer’s opinions, but I did think it was important to engage my audience even the littlest bit with politics and encourage them to vote,” he says. According to the Harris campaign, the team is trying to reach young voters in three main ways: organizing on college campuses, meeting young people who aren’t affiliated with college campuses in spaces they tend to congregate in like concerts and bars, and using online platforms. The campaign’s goal is to connect with voters who may be hard to reach—and part of how they’re doing that is by jumping on and using viral trends to promote Harris’ platform. **“**The thing that we wanted to show was there are going to be some stylistic differences between the campaign before and the campaign now,”RobFlaherty,Harris’ deputy campaign manager and Biden’s former digital director, said during [an interview](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/08/20/dnc-live-updates-coverage/meme-awareness-00175151) at the CNN-POLITICO Grill during the DNC.He said the campaign wanted to **“**wink and nod at what's happening on the internet” in its social media content. Marc Farinella, a senior advisor to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy (no relation to Kamala Harris or her campaign), says while previous presidential campaigns have used social media, this is the first time he’s seen one lean so heavily into memes. “It’s fun, playful, joyful, optimistic,” Farinella, a former Democratic political consultant, says. “I think voters are very receptive to a campaign with that kind of personality. It connects her to pop culture, it gets the attention of predominantly young voters.” Historically, voter turnout among young Americans has often been [low](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/upshot/youth-voting-2020-election.html)—in 2016, about 39% of people between the ages of 18-29 voted in the presidential election, according to an estimate from the [Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement](https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/half-youth-voted-2020-11-point-increase-2016) (CIRCLE), a nonpartisan research organization based at Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. That number increased to 50% in the 2020 presidential election, according to CIRCLE’s estimates. Data from the [Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University](https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2020) shows that the majority of voters between the ages of 18-29 cast their ballots for Biden in the 2020 election—60%, compared to the 36% who voted for Trump. An early poll released by [CIRCLE](https://circle.tufts.edu/index.php/2024-election-youth-poll) in November found that 57% of people between the ages of 18-34 said they’re “extremely likely” to vote in the 2024 presidential election, and those results were from months before Harris became the nominee. Deja Foxx, a 24-year-old content creator based in Tucson, Arizona who has nearly 142,000 followers on [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@deja%5Ffoxx?lang=en), was invited to [speak the first night of the DNC](https://www.npr.org/2024/08/20/g-s1-17896/gen-z-activist-deja-foxx-is-the-first-content-creator-to-speak-at-the-convention) and attended the convention as a credentialed creator. Foxx, who is a reproductive rights advocate and worked on Harris’ first presidential run in 2019, says the campaign’s social media strategy shows that the team is listening to young people. “Not only… is this campaign strategy effective at reaching young people, but it actually signals what a lot of young people are hoping to hear, which is that we hear you and we are going to invite you into the room,” Foxx says. While the campaign’s social media posts frequently use humor to engage young voters, they also often show the differences between what a Harris Administration would look like and what a Trump one would look like—for instance, a recent [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@kamalahq/photo/7408310847929371946?lang=en) from the campaign’s account includes news headlines about state abortion bans, which were implemented after the [U.S. Supreme Court overturned _Roe v. Wade_](https://time.com/6189476/abortion-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/)in 2022\. (Three of the Justices who voted in favor of overturning the landmark ruling were appointed by Trump during his presidency.) The Trump campaign has been using social media to try to reach voters too—Trump has met with controversial internet celebrities including[ Logan Paul](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/trump-logan-paul-podcast-interview-video-youtube-rcna157193) and[ Adin Ross](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/us/politics/trump-adin-ross-livestream-gifts.html), and[ more than 70 influencers](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/rnc-tiktok-influencers-trump-delegates/) were invited to attend the[ Republican National Convention](https://time.com/6998720/trump-shooting-rnc-ear/) in July. Houston, the content creator from the D.C. area, is excited by what she’s seen from the Harris campaign so far but hopes they will spend more time talking about Harris’ policies in the online engagement heading into the fall. “People want policy, and they do want to talk about the details of things, right? Not everything can be sugar—you’re going to get a tummy ache,” Houston says. “I have a lot of faith that we will see more of the substantive information about her campaign and her policies going forward.” ## Transcript Please welcome the Democratic nominee for President, Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris. Ake is Lao it. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination to be President of the United States of America. And let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know. I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self to hold sacred America's fundamental principles from the rule of law to free and fair elections to the peaceful transfer of power. Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob. And send help. He did the opposite. He fanned the flames. As Vice President, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances, and engaged with our brave troops overseas. As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest most lethal fighting force in the world. They know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors. They know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself. And as president, I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals, because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyrany, I know where I stand, and I know where the United States belongs. So let's get. Let's fight for it. Let's get out. Let's vote for it. And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told. Thank you. God bless you and may God bless the United States of America. 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