Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign became inescapable for many on social media with every week delivering a new meme format with the VPOTUS at the heart of it all.
For the 107 days that Harris ran her campaign, her team launched an onslaught on social media that not only embraced the trends of Gen Z but shaped them.
The main account used by the campaign, Kamala HQ, amassed 5.7 million followers on TikTok while Kamala’s personal account reached 9.3 million.
Tim Walz also launched an account on the app that generated two million followers in less than 90 days.
While these numbers are incredibly impressive for how little time the accounts were running, they were not close to catching up to Donald Trump’s 14.3 million followers.
What made Kamala’s campaign truly special amongst political campaigns, however, was how Kamala HQ embraced internet meme culture.
A unique social media approach
Since the beginning of the campaign, Kamala HQ has used trending songs and videos to both promote the democratic message and fight against the Republicans.
This approach humanised Harris in the eyes of many and leaned into the campaign’s largely optimistic tone while painting the Republican opponents as weird and crazy.
A lot of young people have said that during the campaign they saw overwhelming amounts of support for the Democrats online but, seeing as the Democrats lost, this clearly wasn’t entirely true.
While there was lots of energy for the Harris campaign as a lot of it was coming from the campaign themselves, with Kamala HQ alone often releasing at least half a dozen videos a day.
The sheer amount of content being produced combined with the refreshingly positive nature of many of the posts created a real impression with viewers.
However, what many did not realise was that they were in a bubble.
An internet echochamber
This is not any individual viewer’s fault as this is how social media algorithms are designed.
By putting users into bubbles, they increase retainment and can reinforce a narrative about the world and politics which may explain why so many democrats were so surprised by Harris’ defeat.
The same has undoubtedly happened with republican voters and with those who do not engage with politics entirely unbeknownst to each other.
So, while embracing social media culture allowed the Harris campaign to light a fire under a new block of voters it was just too little, too late.
The algorithmic bubble that many have found themselves in has given many a false sense of this election.
However, if the Democrats can produce much energy with young people in 107 days, then a full-length campaign in 2028 with a similar social media strategy may deliver the results they were hoping for this year.
Featured Image Credit: KamalaHQ/TikTok
Features Editor and Head of Podcasting.
Fourth-year Journalism and Politics student.
Primarily focus of Politics, Technology, Gaming and Pop-Culture
