Elections and Political Figues; embracing of the new?
The overarching theme of elections this week throughout the readings has provided a significant and interesting lens to view the current electoral campaigns of the U.S. Democrat nominee Kamala Harris and Republic nominee Donald Trump. Not only was her role as Democratic elect a unique occurrence in which only a select several presidents have decided to prior. President Biden's decision to not seek a second term follows after President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision of March 31, 1968. Kamala Harris's candidacy differs from almost every single political personality we have studied or that is often referred to in Political Science. Harris's political campaign most likely will go down as [a]revolution[ary]. Besides the obvious physical differences in attributes as the first Black woman to be elected as president and of South Asian descent.
Harris has leaned into the Gen-Z demographic by utilising the viral movement of "brat" coined by Charli XCX who has been a relevant artist within the modern generation media from contributing to the soundtracks of 'The Fault in our Stars' and 'Barbie'. The singers new album "brat" was popular in the Northern Hemisphere for titling their summer agenda to be one of fun and partying, which upon hearing about Bidens letter of support to Kamala, Charli XCX tweeted “Kamala IS brat.” Following this, the presidential candidacy team swapped the background of the official Kamala HQ X to mimic the brat album cover and has sparked major conversation and support from youth.
Harris's campaign has taken over TikTok with the verified account 'Kamala HQ' quickly participating in sound trends and memes that help promote Harris' candidacy and highlight support from the general public as well as significant political figures such as the Kennedy dynasty youngest family member Jack Schlossberg and soundbites correlating to viral songs and media including those of past Trump administrators voicing their refusal to endorse Trump and celebrities voicing their personal endorsement for Kamala.
The page which has amassed over 3.8 million followers across social media apps has signified a fresh attitude and respect that Kamala has towards the younger generations both new voters and future voters which are often overlooked and not usually viewed as a respected demographic of voters especially not in a genuine way such as this,
Despite political affiliations it is clear that Harris leaning into the Gen-Z trend wave has set up a new blueprint for candidates wishing to adhere to young voters and a fresh set of political participants.
I find Kamala Harris' campaign incredibly interesting because I've never seen a politician do this so seemingly well. In NZ elections, Christopher Luxon used similar tactics by making tiktoks talking about his policy platforms with half the screen showing slime being made or sand being cut. This is a popular trend for engagement among young people on social media. In recent years, there has been a shift in the way politicians interact with social media in an attempt to engage younger audiences to boost voter turnout. When Harris first announced running for the U.S presidency, Vote.org reported an approximate 700% increase in voter registration, with a high proportion of these being under 35. To some these tactics may seem ridiculous but their success will be determined later this year.
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