Topline
Vice President Kamala Harris has racked up millions of views and followers on her Kamala HQ TikTok and X campaign accounts by embracing memes and popular TikTok audios and trends, a shift from the Biden campaign’s TikTok strategy, which struggled to connect with audiences.
Key Facts
The first post on Kamala HQ with Harris as the presidential candidate is set to a popular song on TikTok, “360” by Charli XCX, and consists of a slideshow of pictures connecting the Harris campaign to Charli XCX’s neon-green “Brat summer” aesthetic.
The account’s second post, which racked up 6 million likes, is set to “Femininomenon” by Chappell Roan, a popular song on TikTok and a buzzy artist among Gen Z listeners, contrasting Harris with several unflattering pictures of former President Donald Trump.
The most-viewed video on Kamala HQ, a slideshow that says the choice in the 2024 election is between a convicted felon and a former prosecutor, is set to “it boy” by Canadian rapper bbno$, a hugely popular TikTok audio that has been used in more than 720,000 videos.
Another Kamala HQ video is a supercut of clips of Harris dancing and some of her viral quotes, including her “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” remark during the 2020 vice presidential debate, set to a popular mashup of Roan’s song “HOT TO GO!” and ian’s “Magic Johnson”—a video that resembles “fancam” edits social media users make for their favorite music artists.
The approach is a marked difference from videos uploaded while Biden was running, many of which were news clips, videos about Trump and Project 2025 and straightforward videos of staffers speaking to the camera, which failed to gain traction.
Harris launched a personal TikTok account on Thursday, on which she has posted two videos and racked up nearly 2 million followers, whereas Biden has never had a personal TikTok account.
How Much Is Harris Outperforming Biden On Tiktok?
The Kamala HQ TikTok account has nearly 2 million followers, about quadrupling its following count since Harris launched her presidential campaign on Sunday—the account had about 440,000 followers on Sunday, according to Social Blade. Videos posted since Sunday have achieved much higher view counts than those posted while Biden was running. Most videos on the account posted under Biden’s candidacy hovered around 100,000 views, with some failing to break six digits and few successful videos reaching one million views. Every video posted by the account after rebranding to Kamala HQ has surpassed one million views, with three videos topping 10 million.
How Big Is Harris’ Reach On Tiktok?
Interest in Harris has surged on TikTok this week beyond just the posts from Kamala HQ. Hashtags including #kamalaharris and #harris2024 have spiked in engagement on TikTok, with #harris2024 ranking No. 4 on TikTok’s list of trending hashtags in the United States. Videos using the hashtag #harris2024 have accumulated 51 million views over the 7-day period between July 18 and July 24 in the United States. The #kamalaharris hashtag has racked up 574 million views over the same period, a significant chunk of the 4 billion overall views of the hashtag. Interest in both hashtags has increased each day since Harris’ announcement, and about half of the audience for each hashtag is users between the ages of 18-24.
How Does Harris’ Tiktok Reach Compare To Trump’s?
Though he seldom posts, Trump has a much higher following count on TikTok than Harris. He has accumulated 9 million followers on the platform since posting his first video on June 1, a video with Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White that has garnered more than 164 million views. Trump’s decision to join TikTok was met with some surprise, since he tried to ban the app as president, but his campaign said he joined TikTok to “get President Trump’s winning message to every voter possible.”
Tangent
Harris has been the subject of several viral internet memes since launching her candidacy, including the now-famous: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” The quote was from a speech at the White House last year, when Harris sought to make a point about educational equity, and the video has become an ironic rallying cry for her campaign, with supporters adopting coconut emojis and remixing her quote with popular songs. Social media users have also edited clips of Harris laughing and dancing into videos set to songs from British pop singer Charli XCX’s album “Brat,” making her a symbol of the neon-green “Brat summer” aesthetic. Charli XCX has described “Brat summer” as “being confident, putting yourself out there, being out, being about, being the center of attention,” and she boosted the comparisons by tweeting: “kamala IS brat.” The Kamala HQ account has referenced these memes, while Harris herself said on her personal TikTok account she has “heard that recently I’ve been on the ‘For You Page.’”
Key Background
Harris’ TikTok efforts are a likely attempt to win over young voters. According to a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely voters conducted July 22-24, after Biden dropped out, Trump leads Harris 48% to 47% overall—but among likely voters aged 18-29, Harris leads 59% to 38%. An Axios/Generation Lab poll conducted July 22-24 found a bigger lead for Harris than Biden over Trump among voters aged 18 to 34. Harris led Trump 60% to 40% with that demographic, while Biden led 53% to 47%. Record turnout for voters under 30 in 2020, who leaned Biden, was a crucial demographic for Biden to win the election.
Surprising Fact
Harris has previously voiced concerns over TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, telling ABC’s “This Week” in March the Biden administration intends to “to deal with the owner, and we have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok,” but maintained the administration does not support a TikTok ban. The next month, Biden signed into law a bill that would ban TikTok in the United States unless ByteDance sells the platform within 270 days.
Further Reading
Kamala Harris’ ‘Coconut Tree’ Quote, Explained: What She Meant And Why It’s Going Viral As She Launches Campaign (Forbes)
Here’s How Kamala Harris Is Embracing Memes Like Charli XCX’s ‘Brat Summer’ And ‘Project Coconut Tree’ (Forbes)
What To Know About Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’—Kamala Harris’ New Campaign Anthem (Forbes)