How ‘brat summer’ may be propelling Kamala Harris to the American presidency
Can TikTok help lead the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign to victory in the United States presidential election the way Is enough to sustain her momentum into four more years of a Democratic-led America?
With under 100 days left to election day in November, Harris’s campaign has quickly taken flight, in just the first day of her candidacy and $310 million in the month of July alone.
The Democrats also have an unexpected supporter in singer and songwriter Charli XCX, who fuelled youth excitement with her tweet
Up until a few weeks ago, many people — particularly those over 35 — probably wouldn’t have had a clue what that meant. Today, young people across the U.S. and globally have as it’s been bestowed upon Harris.
The viral sensation quickly found its way into and , with NBC News even publishing a Venn diagram to make sense of it all.
Embracing ‘messiness’ of life
Living a brat summer and embodying “brat” is all about embracing the messiness of life. In various interviews, Charli XCX defines a brat as someone who is .”
The brat phenomenon has helped fuel a much-needed cultural renaissance for the Democratic Party, led by their newfound set of engaged followers — American youth.
After Harris entered the race when U.S. President Joe Biden announced he wasn’t running for a second term, Vote.org, a non-partisan platform in the U.S. dedicated to voter registration and get-out-the-vote technology, announced a . Almost all of these new voters are people under the age of 35.
Just days after Charli XCX’s viral tweet, , the popular video and photo-sharing platform (that, incidentally, . As of last November, research shows that .
Harris has since amassed more than 4.3 million TikTok followers and over 25 million likes on her videos.
TikTok is illustrating the significant role the brat handle is playing in Harris’s campaign. It’s become inundated dedicated to , calling for a and galvanizing youth engagement as .
An opportunity unlike any other
There are more than despite in the U.S., making it the next to Indonesia. This popularity, and TikTok’s ability to mobilize young people in a country where they’re in political institutions and elections, presents an opportunity for the Democrats unlike any other.
Harris’s good-natured demeanour — evident in her now-famous quote — has helped energize her campaign. While these isolated moments have boosted her profile and popularity, TikTok is turning them into through .
In 2016, Twitter was by Trump to great success. But the impact and role of social media on general elections isn’t unique to the U.S.
In the , and the 2019 vote in India, social media was that fuelled aggressive nationalism.
Earlier this year, TikTok became a battleground for youth during the and was used to mobilize the youth vote in the .
The role that , specifically , is nothing new.
But social media’s ability to convert content engagement to voters at the polls is far more murky, compelling get-out-the-vote organizations like , which works in more than 20 American states and leverages influencer culture and the viral nature of social media, to try to ensure online engagement translates into votes.
Sustaining excitement
Youth excitement about Harris is showing no signs of abating.
In an interview with CNN, Prachitha Porika, a young registered Democratic organizer, said in response to Harris’s candidacy: “All of a sudden, just like that, we realized Gen Z can get their ass off their couch, get up and organize … they just needed the right people in office to .”
Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, noted this shift in energy on his , publicly telling Harris:
“The joy that you’re bringing back to the country, the enthusiasm that’s out there … it’ll be a privilege to take this with you across the country.”
Other commentators are noticing , with CNN’s Jake Tapper arguing the success of Harris’s brat summer is a direct result of “going right for them (the youth) in a .”
Connecting with young Americans this way may clearly have an impact on voter turnout in November. While the “Kamala IS brat” sensation and its TikTok enthusiasts seemingly took flight overnight, the real question is whether the momentum continues and young voters show up to cast their ballots.
Co-authored by Assistant Professor Yvonne Su, Department of Equity Studies, 91ɫ and
MPhIl Candidate, Development Studies, University of Oxford.
This article is republished from .
