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Although the summer of 2024 saw many TikTok trends, including content provided by Love Island and the Olympics, it had an overarching theme- “brat.” The term “brat summer” took hold with the release of Charli XCX’s album “brat.” The sentiment blew up on TikTok and videos of people dancing to one of the songs on the album, “Apple”, and edits to various songs started to pop up everywhere.

Normally in pop culture, trends have a shelf life of a couple of weeks, or on special occasions a month or two. Likewise, brat summer was looking to come to a close when summer did – until it entered the political sphere.

As with every election, young voters are a demographic that politicians struggle to bring to the polls. On average, voters aged 18-24 vote at a significantly lower rate than their older counterparts. In 2016, the youth voter turnout was 39.4% compared to a 61.7%  turnout for voters aged 49-64. 

In 2020, younger voters surged to the polls in an unprecedented manner. Voting rates for the 18-24 demographic shot up to 48%. As with past elections, both parties were marketing their candidates through various media platforms, and some Democratic voters were expressing concerns about whether Biden would have another victory over Trump, especially since he didn’t seem to be connecting with younger voters. 

Then on July 21, President Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race. Harris and her team immediately took action. They started campaigning, raising money and drawing in support. In her move to win the Democrat’s bid for president, Vice President Harris and her team rebranded the BidenHQ social media pages to KamalaHQ, which unexpectedly helped reinvigorate the new voters.

What exactly did this rebrand do for Harris’ campaign? Almost immediately, KamalaHQ started to gain traction on social media sites, the most being on TikTok. Her campaign and resonance with younger voters took off when a video set to Charli XCX’s song “365” was posted. The video was a slideshow, the first image being a tweet from Charli XCX stating that “kamala IS brat,” and the subsequent image being a photo that said “kamala hq” in the format of the “brat” album cover. 

This video drew in masses of young Democratic voters towards Harris, drawing in over 200K more likes than BidenHQ’s previous posts and the traction didn’t stop there. In an effort to keep these younger voters engaged, KamalaHQ continued to roll out videos – each getting seemingly more positive attention and engagement than the last. Most importantly, these videos were on trend.

KamalaHQ’s posts managed to get younger voters interested and actively engaged in the upcoming election by speaking to them on their own level. She also engaged with the demographic at a key point in time; when they started to feel hope and excitement about the election after the news of Biden leaving the race was released. 

Harris was able to connect with them in a way that Biden didn’t by not only entering their world but fully diving into social platforms utilized by young voters. The world of social media can often feel trite and meaningless, but when used in the correct way, it can inspire the people who use it and completely revolutionize the ways that politicians interact with younger generations.

Harris and her team continue to utilize social media as a vital part of her campaign and will likely do so until the election in November. As we get closer to the election, KamalaHQ has started to produce videos that contain information about her campaign – campaign strategies, events, and voter registration information – alongside the more fun and upbeat videos.

This balance is crucial to maintaining the hold Harris currently has on young voters as her team strives to keep them engaged, but also informed. These videos give many voters information about her campaign that they wouldn’t be inclined to learn about otherwise. 

The full results of the election won’t be known until November, but Harris has managed to reinvigorate the younger mass of voters in a way Biden just couldn’t. Regardless of how the election turns out, KamalaHQ is changing the ways that politicians campaign and voters consume their information.

Edited by Molly Levine | mlevine@themaneater.com

Copyedited by Stella Thrift and Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com 

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com