Democrats may soon nominate a presidential candidate capable of rivaling GOP nominee Donald Trump in memeability.
After President Joe Biden announced his decision to forfeit re-election, a tidal wave of memes about Vice President Kamala Harris — whom Biden backed as the Democratic presidential candidate — flooded the internet.
On platforms like TikTok and X, the mood felt celebratory as many left-leaning accounts posted upbeat fan edits of Harris and made memes out of her more memorable lines from speeches. On Sunday, British pop artist Charli XCX appeared to back Harris, calling her a “brat,” a reference to her new album, which has become the Gen Z theme of the summer.
Some political strategists say the memes are helping Harris generate a level of organic social media clout among Gen Z that Biden has struggled to cultivate, amplified by the spotlight of a possible presidential nomination.
“She doesn’t take herself too seriously. She knows how to have fun, and she’s somebody that is willing to be a little bit less stuffy than a traditional presidential candidate would be, and I think that’s a good thing in this election cycle,” said Marianna Pecora, the communications director for the Gen Z-run political advocacy group Voters of Tomorrow.
But Pecora said the viral moments aren’t just for laughs — they also indicate broader support for Harris, particularly among young people who have at times felt disenchanted by presidential candidates.“I don’t think that anyone is going to necessarily meme their way to the presidency,” said Pecora, 20, a student at George Washington University. “But I do think that being able to make this election something bright and fun and exciting and something that’s infiltrating people’s feeds and therefore their everyday lives is only a good thing.”
Part of Harris’ frequent virality comes from her tendency to show off her seemingly authentic personality online. It’s why many of her vocal online supporters — who call themselves the KHive — have staunchly defended her since her first presidential run in 2020.
The KHive, which is a play on Beyoncé’s BeyHive, has exhibited stan behavior in the way it circulates content and news about Harris. It has rallied around a plethora of humorous moments, from her love of Venn diagrams to her out-of-tune rendition of “Wheels on the Bus” to her propensity for busting out enthusiastic dance moves.
After Biden’s debate with Trump in June, which sparked a panic about his capacity to run for re-election, the KHive gained renewed momentum online. Fans of Harris turned a speech last year in which she quoted her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, talking about a “coconut tree” into a running meme.
“My mother used to, she would give us a hard time sometimes and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’” Harris said in the speech. “‘You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.’”
In the 24 hours since Biden’s announcement, Google searches for “coconut tree” spiked dramatically.
The “coconut tree” army gained so much traction overnight that even elected representatives — such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — leaned into it. Many X and TikTok users joked that the “coconut prophecy” had been fulfilled.
So far, however, Harris herself hasn’t publicly acknowledged the meme.A spokesperson for the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Harris’ slight eccentricity has sometimes made her an easy target for jokes online. Some conservative accounts have tried to mock her more viral moments. In December, the Republican National Committee made a 4-minute-long compilation of Harris using one of her more notable lines: “What can be, unburdened by what has been.”
But some, like Annie Wu Henry, a digital and political strategist, said that just because some of the things Harris says are silly doesn’t mean they leave a bad impression or deter prospective voters.
“Some of these phrases we’ve seen, like the coconut one, when it first got into the ether, people were like, ‘What is this quote?’” said Henry, who ran the viral TikTok campaign of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., in 2022. “But as people were reading it, they were like, ‘No, this actually is a really insightful thing to say.’ And people are having fun with that.”
Even Harris’ own camp appears to be embracing the online buzz. On Sunday, the campaign’s X account, @KamalaHQ, began using Charli XCX’s neon green “brat” theme as its cover image. The X account's two-word bio also quotes Harris' speech. It reads: “Providing context."
Though young progressives have heavily criticized Harris in the past for her conservative record as a prosecutor, several prominent young left-leaning voter groups were quick to throw their support behind her this week. The social media advocacy group Gen-Z for Change, formerly TikTok for Biden, announced its endorsement of Harris within a few hours after Biden dropped out. Voters of Tomorrow has also rebranded its X page to “brat” green, writing in its social media profile description that Gen Z is in the coconut tree (using emojis to depict the tree).
Henry said she believes the support from younger progressives — even those who may not fully agree with all of Harris’ stances — is so suddenly cohesive because “people overwhelmingly understand what is at stake this election cycle.”
“Nobody is ignorant to what is at stake and what we are up against, and that means we are going to consolidate and coalesce around who the candidate might be,” she said. “And if it is … Kamala Harris, I think everyone is extremely determined to make sure she wins.”
