KamalaHQ: A Reflection On The TikTok Page That Had GenZ In A Chokehold
On November 4th, everyone was holding their breath. Everyone around the globe was holding their breath. The Election was upon us. A day that I, and many others, feared. Did I do enough to help my candidate win? What is going to happen if Kamala wins? If Trump wins? I didn’t want to find out, but it was unavoidable. I went to bed around 2 am after hours, Facetiming my friends and family back home, texting friends trying to remain calm, and meeting up with friends in my residence hall to watch. I couldn’t handle watching the numbers increasing, each vote being tallied across the country.
I woke up the next morning around 8:30 am for my Elementary Chinese I class. No, no, no, this can’t be real, you’re joking. You’re joking. Immediate panic ran through my body. How am I supposed to go to class in these conditions? I step out front to my typically hustling Third Avenue street and silence. No joy. No one was looking up. The air felt heavy. I hold my head low and make a slow walk to the 6-Train in somber, in anger, in confusion, but I have to keep moving forward. I thought she was going to pull through. I thought this was finally the moment we’d have a woman of Black and Indian descent as our president. But, I can’t say I’m surprised. I’m disappointed, but not shocked. America’s colors shined through that night, a misogynistic and racist country that would rather elect a convicted felon over a qualified woman for the job.
Now Harris had only a few months to create an entire political campaign after Joe Biden, the original Democratic nominee, dropped out of the race. People are begging to ask the question, “What would it have been like if he dropped out earlier, or never ran at all?” To which I also wonder, but with the circumstances, she ran a damn good campaign, in my opinion (with the obvious issues of not addressing the Palestinian Genocide occurring in Israel and not vowing to stop funding Israel or failing to connect with many working-class communities) but one of the major standouts in her campaign was her social media presence. Both on TikTok and Twitter, which sent shockwaves amongst the GenZ community for the relatability of her videos with trendy sounds or memes that were popular during this cycle of online brain rot or niche references.
I want to take the time and reflect on these pages and if it did an effective job enticing young voters to support her campaign. For many GenZ members, this was our first Presidential Election, something that I was very excited to participate in and do my do-diligence and have my voice heard. While staying up to date with my new sources or content from the candidates, Harris immediately took a unique approach to attracting GenZ voters, using TikTok as a political battleground to gain support and reach the youth of America. In a 2022 Survey, conducted by Amy Watson from Statista, found that 50% of GenZ get their news daily from Social Media platforms, and 20% use social media a few times per week for their source (Watson). That is half of the GenZ using a social media platform of some sort as their source for consumption of news updates, which could have fluctuated up or down due to the election, there is no data on that. A smart way to reach half of GenZers is right before you, the online world that most GenZ grew up using and accustomed to.
So politicians realize the importance of an online presence, and Kamala Harris took no time building a social media empire. With the endorsement of Charli XCX, the arguable artist of the summer with her studio album “brat,” (my personal artist of the year), who took to X, on July 21, posting the quote “kamala IS brat,” sending shockwaves across fans and creating even more buzz around the new Democratic nominee at the time. Soon after the post, Kamala HQ changed its banner on the app to the iconic brat green shade with the title “kamala hq” in the brat font. A beautiful move to ride off the back of the post and show the fans of Charli XCX that she is a relevant, updated, cool-with-the-kids kind of energy.
Also adding the tagline of the X page to “Providing context.” in response to the viral meme of Harris’ swearing-in ceremony of commissioners for the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, going viral as an audio on TikTok. As she stated in this speech: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? *giggles* You exist in the context of all in which you live–and what came before you” immediately becoming a meme on the popular platform, TikTok, where people immediately upon the discovery of this audio, began to lipsync to the iconic lines, perform recreations, adding a few relatable sentences unrelated to Harris over the audio, or create songs with the phrase, taking the Internet by storm. The internet craze around the connection between Harris and this sound drove recognition through the roof, creating almost an unseriousness to her. An easy-going, funny candidate that GenZ humor already grasped hold of.
The other notable meme-ification of one of Kamala Harris’ interviews comes from one she had with her sister, Mya, in which the two are bantering about her election as Attorney General to the state of California. Harris mentions during the discussion how “You realize you're gonna have to start calling me General Harris” which is dismissed and waved off by Mya. A few moments after she impulsively, jokingly says into the microphone, “Big Sister General” and the two burst into laughter. That clip immediately became a hit because of the genuine connection between the two, yet the randomness and pure humor behind having the context of the newly elected Attorney General of the state making such a funny comment. It was circulated on social media platforms and used on the KamalaHQ TikTok itself. It became a classic demonstration of the down-to-earth personality of Harris but was also taken out of context and individuals put their spin on the meme by adding relatable taglines to the audio and circulating the meme in edits of Harris, it was an inescapable time to be online for both memes.
On the TikTok page specifically, KamalaHQ was known for posting videos that related a lot to GenZ brain rot humor effectively, posting things that would be very unthinkable in older political climates. Imagine describing to someone from the 1960s what today's candidates are doing to try and get voters on their side, they’d be blown away. Besides the more chronically online type of videos that were posted, many videos showed her rallies, her interacting with people from critical swing states, and videos that could only be described as “hopecore”. Showing videos of young children in her embrace and walking around rally stages with her VP running mate Tim Walz, waving to the crowd erupting into cheers, with audios that feel very nostalgic and sentimental to viewers. Like Taylor Swift’s “Long Live” which honestly had me shed a tear while watching, it did its job. There was also a fair share of postings that highlighted new ads the Harris Campaign created, celebrity endorsements and speeches, and disses at Trump and the people apart of his campaign. My algorithm rarely fed me that genre of videos, like many others, I consumed the more comical videos or edits from Harris’ social media team.
In comparison to Trump’s, Vance’s, or Walz’s TikTok presence, all three of them had a more typical approach to using these platforms. Showcasing their character, their good-doings in battleground states, or making comments against the other party in their videos. They made their videos less targeted towards the GenZ eye but towards those whose algorithms would feed users this content and be able to decipher a different message than what their opponents are making it seem to be. Walz created a long of content around his background and as his nickname of “Coach,” Trump was seen greeting rallygoers and those who lived/worked in various states, and making aggressive comments towards Harris and Vance posted a lot of snippets from interviews and rally’s with professional captions to get his beliefs and values across to viewers. The differences between their social media approaches on TikTok were quite different in style but all aimed to do the same, get voters to the polls supporting them.
A large part of what made KamalaHQ so successful in grabbing the attention of (chronically) online GenZers is the team behind these pages. What better way to understand what would be a hit and trend on social media than GenZers themselves? She decided to hire Lauren Kapp, a 25-year-old to run the TikTok account and acquire a team of younger professionals who understand the digital realm and could utilize their knowledge for political use. Their entire team was under 30, and a few of them were fresh college graduates, helping to strengthen their understanding of what will land with GenZ users. Content creation from these younger individuals and their relatability to what GenZ humor is actually like helped create the spectacle and success of grabbing the attention of those on TikTok with their “random” brain rot humor videos and CapCut edits highlighting Harris in this comedic yet strong-willed candidate.
As I reflect on KamalaHQ and mourn the death of the account, I am in awe of her ability to recognize the importance of social media in trying to reach the GenZ voters who are just voting for the first time. The content posted and memes used to portray the type of person Kamala Harris is, is something that will try to be replicated in years to come. The comedic, unseriousness of some videos and trends meshed with the serious tones of speeches and advertisements came together in harmony to construct the KamalaHQ page that I will most definitely be looking back on as an example of what the political realm could start looking like in the future. Forever obsessed with KamalaHQ, sincerely a KamalaHQ ride-or-die.
