Vice President and likely Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris made her TikTok debut on Friday, July 26.
Harris has posted several videos since joining TikTok, including a clip from a recent rally speech where she addressed former President Donald Trump after backing out of a debate between the two. “If you got something to say, say it to my face,” Harris said in the video, with the viral song “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar playing in the background.
Her first post has garnered more than 4.6 million likes with comments saying “Kamala Harris 2024” and “We’re all rooting for you.” But what do other members of Generation Z think of Harris’ start on the platform?
Stacia O’Leary is a recent BYU journalism graduate who thinks Harris’ use of TikTok has been “genius.”
“I feel like the younger generation was pretty disparaged with the options with Trump and Biden, and Kamala joining the race and making such a showing on TikTok has reignited a lot of people, myself included,” O’Leary said.
Sophia Erickson, a biology major from Rochester, New York, explained how she believes Harris’ social media team is effective with keeping up with recent popular trends.
“I think that it's effective because it's organic,” Erickson said. “Within days of her candidacy announcement, I saw Gen Z posting clips of her ‘coconut tree’ speech edited into popular songs and jokes. Her PR team seems to have really got their finger on the pulse as they've been playing along, encouraging the memes and viral clips and everything that makes Kamala so impactful on social media right now.”
Erickson referenced the viral “coconut tree” video. The clip comes from May 2023, when the vice president spoke at the swearing-in ceremony of commissioners for the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. Harris quoted something her late mother used to say to her: “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.”
Since Harris announced her presidential election campaign for this fall, the hashtag #coconuttree has gained more than 26,300 videos on TikTok.
Erickson explained that she believes Harris and her team are approaching the virality of the meme and connecting with Gen Z in an impactful way. She compared it to Hillary Clinton's “awkward” "Pokemon Go to the polls" bit when trying to appeal to younger voters during the 2016 election, with a reference to a popular app at the time.
Jonathan Harman, a BYU senior from Sterling, Virginia studying political science, has a different opinion. According to Harman, although it matters that a candidate understands the issues the younger generation in the U.S. faces, he does not think Harris’ focus on TikTok will be very helpful.
“It just looked cringey,” Harman said. “My thoughts are that anytime a politician tries to appeal to youth, they just seem like they're pandering. People like to be seen as adults and not like children.”
The younger generation has a vital stake in the upcoming election, Erickson pointed out.
“We're the ones starting families, buying houses, preparing for and starting careers and inheriting the long-term environmental impacts of current legislation,” Erickson said. “If the government ignores that, then the country will be worse off in the long run.”
40.8 million members of Gen Z (ages 18-27) will be eligible to vote in this year’s presidential election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. This includes 8.3 million newly eligible youth (ages 18-19).
Statistics also show that this voter demographic is also highly diverse. About 45% of Gen Zs are young people of color, including 8.8 million Latinos, 5.7 million Black youth, 1.7 million Asian Americans and 1.8 million multiracial youth.
Harris’ connection with the diverse Gen Z voter demographic could be essential, considering how, if elected, she would become the first Black female U.S. president, first female U.S. president and first Asian American U.S. president.
However, when asked whether a candidate’s use of social media influences who they might vote for, young adults expressed that it is not the most important factor.
“A candidate's social media presence doesn't influence my opinion on who I plan to vote for,” Harman said. “I vote based on policy. I find most, if not all political campaign ads shallow and un-informing — mostly just candidates lobbing false accusations that have nothing to do with how they would govern.”
Erickson expressed a similar sentiment.
“I consider myself an informed voter and regularly read the news to keep myself updated on candidate's positions,” Erickson said.