Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has recently gained lots of attention from young voters with her campaign leaning into social media trends.
While young voters are an essential demographic for this election, Harris aligning her image with certain Gen-Z social media trends rides the thin line between clever marketing and jumping on meaningless microtrends.
It’s no secret that my generation has a shorter attention span — that’s why the KamalaHQ accounts on both TikTok and Instagram are doing so well; it is garnering the attention of thousands of young people with short videos relating to current trends they’re already obsessed with. Examples include the “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” clip from one of Harris’ previous speeches and the Charlie xcx “Kamala IS brat” tweet on X.
Both of these occasions turned into memes before Harris’ campaign team played into them — but once they did, it pushed Harris further into the limelight, gaining traction on every social media platform.
However, much like these microtrends, Harris will not have the attention of young people for long if she does not build more of a foundation for her campaign.
While Gen-Z loves a good joke, we also deeply care about social issues and policies that are going to affect our livelihoods.
Her campaign team needs to be more innovative when it comes to pushing out what policies Harris will be focusing on during her potential presidency. They’ve nailed the tactic of getting attention, now they need to keep it by being transparent and clear about what is to come if Harris is president.
When Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate, people began saying Walz is “making America funny again” after he cracked a few jokes in his speeches. This goes further to show that Harris and Walz have no problem connecting with the young demographic on a surface level. Now, they need to dig deeper.
The Democratic campaign needs to be appealing enough to encourage young people to actually go out and vote.
In the 2020 presidential election, the 18-24 age demographic had the lowest voter turnout of 51.4%, according to the United States Census Bureau. On the other hand, voter turnout was the highest between the 65-74 age demographic at 76%.
This election determines our future. If you want something, you have to educate yourself on it and then vote for it.
Social media platforms, for better or for worse, are where so many people get their information now.
While Harris isn’t pushing out misinformation like her opponent is, her campaign needs to start creating informative content that will also trend. Memes alone will not win an election.
It is the responsibility of the politician to be transparent about their platform, but this is not something voters can always rely on.
If you are going to vote in the presidential election — you absolutely should be — you need to fact-check everything and make sure you are looking at reliable sources for information.
It is also important to make sure you are registered to vote by Oct. 7, the voter registration deadline. Create a voting plan, and make sure you show up to the polls, whether it be in person or by mail. Early voting begins Oct. 21, and Election Day is Nov. 5.
So, pay attention to more than the TikTok videos and Instagram reels. Every vote counts, even yours.