Forget charli x lorde or charli x chappel, the collab of the summer has arrived. Vice President Kamala Harris has managed to harness the TikTok trend of the moment, with endorsement from Charli herself, possibly capturing a key voter demographic in the process.
She truly is having her brat girl summer.
The timeline
6th July: viral TikTok edit of Kamala Harris dancing, laughing and giving her famous ‘coconut tree’ address (currently at 478.3k likes, the top liked Kamala Harris x brat post on TikTok)
21st July, 1.46am EST: Biden announces on X that he is giving up his presidential bid, with Kamala Harris as his assumed successor
21st July, 8.29pm EST: British pop star Charli xcx posts ‘kamala IS brat’ on X
Shortly afterwards, @BidenHQ on X changes its handle to @KamalaHQ, and the cover photo is brat green. It’s official: Kamala is brat.
22nd July: news outlets worldwide start to pick up on Kamala’s brat summer. Forbes leads with the headline ‘Kamala Harris campaign is in its brat summer era after viral Charli XCX post’
TikTok is flooded with Kamala x brat edits, using tracks from the album already trending on the app including 360, Von Dutch and Apple.
What makes it work?
Every political campaign is doing its best to capture the hearts and minds of social media this year, but many of them miss the mark. In the recent UK election, online speculation was rife over who was winning ‘the meme war’, though the general reaction was one of embarrassment from young people.
The beauty of brat summer is that it’s all about embracing embarrassment and harnessing its potential. As Charli xcx described in a TikTok video (below), a brat is someone who is ‘a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things some times…who feels like herself but maybe also has a breakdown’. The magic is that any ‘dumb things’ you do are automatically ok, even positive, because ‘it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.’
Harris’ campaign has taken full advantage of this loophole. Her awkward dancing and famous ‘coconut tree’ speech, which had been widely shared to ridicule her, are now central to the ‘kamala is brat’ movement. Even her love for Venn diagrams, once the subject of a one minute ‘cringe’ video made by Republican supporters, spouted its own meme for her campaign page.
On Apple, Charli sings ‘I guess the apple don’t fall far from the tree’ – an ideal segue into the ‘you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’ moment. The first track 360 features the repeated line ‘I’m so Julia’, referring to model and brat Julia Fox, accompanied in many kamala x brat videos with a visual reading ‘I’m so kamala’.
Why is Gen Z so important in this election?
After a tumultuous few days in US politics saw journalists use the word ‘dizzying’ a frankly dizzying number of times, things seem to be settling down. Biden is out, Harris is in, and the Democrat party can finally focus on something other than defending their candidate’s mental capacity. Few could have predicted exactly where this newly freed-up energy would be directed, but targeting young voters in their natural habitat might actually a tactical move for Harris.
As ever in US elections, Harris needs to secure a couple of key states to beat her opponent Donald Trump. Commentators have been speculating that her choice of running mate will take this into consideration, with Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Mark Kelly of Arizona (both swing states and crucial to Biden’s victory) as frontrunners.
As well as specific states, though, there are some key demographics that could hold the deciding vote in this election. Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 were largely thanks to the support of minority groups and young people. So Harris’ campaign losing no time in going after the latter shouldn’t come as a surprise.
It remains to be seen whether this 48-hour surge in support will result in votes in November. Social media, especially TikTok, is a famously fickle and fast-moving space. On the other hand, Charli’s album came out over 6 weeks ago, a lifetime in internet terms, and brat summer is still gaining traction. Another 6 weeks takes us into September, just a month out from polling day. If TikTokkers can keep up the momentum, this might just be enough to swing Gen Z once and for all.
