‘Kamala IS brat’: How Kamala Harris’ campaign is embracing the memes

(WASHINGTON) — She’s just living that life.

Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden announced he would end his reelection campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president, Harris has been met with an outpouring of enthusiasm from high-ranking Democrats, celebrities and the public.

Some of the most unexpected voices among the rabble have been fans of Charli XCX, the British hyperpop artist whose critically acclaimed Brat has been the predominant album of the summer. Memes about the album and its signature lime green aesthetic have exploded online since its release in June, with many dubbing the summer of 2024 as “Brat summer.”

Even Charli XCX herself got into it hours after Harris was endorsed by Biden. “kamala IS brat,” she posted on X (which, if you exist in the context, you know is a positive thing).

Since late June, when Biden’s disastrous debate performance raised alarms about his fitness to stay in the race, Harris’ name began being floated as Biden’s probable successor. Along with it came memes — particularly ones linking her with “Brat,” including popstar-style video edits of Harris dancing to songs from the album.

Ryan Long, a 22-year-old Charli XCX fan behind one of the most viral video edits, told ABC News the video took him three hours to make. It now has 3.6 million views. When he saw Harris’ official campaign appeared to be embracing the memes about her, he said he was “so excited.”

“I was screaming,” he said. “I looked away from my phone for five or 10 minutes, and when I looked back, I had so many texts from friends and all these people tagging me in the comments.”

‘You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’

Harris has also become associated with coconuts — with supporters talking about falling “out of a coconut tree” or declaring themselves “coconutpilled” — due to a speech she gave in May 2023 at a swearing-in ceremony for the President’s Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics.

“My mother used to … say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. 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,” she remarked.

The clip first gained prominence after the Republican National Committee posted it on X, prompting ridicule from conservatives, particularly for her boisterous laugh. Even Trump has dubbed her “Laffin’ Kamala” — a nickname the meme-literate on the left have reclaimed, editing her chuckle into a whole slew of pop songs.

Since entering the presidential race, Harris’ campaign has leaned all the way into the memes. Her official campaign X account, @KamalaHQ, debuted by changing the accounts banner image to ‘kamala hq’ — all lowercase and on a lime green background, in the precise stylization of the Charli XCX album cover. The account’s bio, “providing context,” is a reference to her viral line about existing “in the context.”

Prominent Democrats have gotten on board as well. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signaled his endorsement with emojis of a coconut, palm tree and an American flag, and Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono posted a photo of herself with Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff with a lime green overlay. Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey posted a photo of Harris and himself falling out of a coconut tree on the cover of the children’s book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. “Let’s put Kamala in the Situation Room,” it said.

Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz posted an actual photo of him climbing up a palm tree to retrieve a coconut. 

“Madam Vice President, we are ready to help,” he wrote.

Schatz told ABC News the photo was taken six years ago on Hawaii Island, and that he scaled the tree in order to “eat and drink from the coconut.”

“What I did was I thought about tweeting a coconut, and I understood everyone was already doing that,” Schatz said. “And then I remembered that I had this photo and then my iPhone was very helpful in finding it instantaneously.”

A ‘semi-ironic groundswell of support’

Long said he hopes the memes around Harris’ campaign can breathe some new hope and energy into the race for the presidency.

“I really think using memes like this that people are already actively engaging with is going to help get people out to vote, because I think a lot of people are very politically disengaged or disillusioned,” he said.

Adam Downer, a senior editor at Know Your Meme, said the campaign appears to be leaning into the memes in order to “endear her to her semi-ironic groundswell of online support.”

“Obviously, Charli XCX is huge right now, as is the concept of ‘brat summer,’ a do-what-you-want, screw-the-haters mantra inspired by Charli’s attitude on her album ‘Brat,'” Downer said. “The Venn diagram of online, politically knowledgeable Gen Z and Millennial voters who are also Charli XCX fans is close to a circle, so we have a type of ‘Two Things’ meme-ing going on, where basically people are combining two disparate interests into one joke to get a laugh.”

The true meaning of what it is to be “brat” is hard to define, but Charli XCX explained how she sees it in a TikTok.

“You’re just, like, that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes, who like, feels herself, but then also like maybe has a breakdown, but kind of like, parties through it,” she said. “Is very honest, is very blunt, a little bit volatile. Yeah like, does, like, dumb things, but like, it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”

It’s hard to say how long these memes will last, or if potential voters will sour on them as the race goes on — and it wouldn’t be the first time a politician capitalizing on a meme has backfired.

“I would be very surprised if Kamala herself references this on the campaign trail, lest she suffer a ‘Pokémon GO to the Polls’ moment,” Downer said, a reference to Hillary Clinton’s awkward bid to capitalize on the popularity of the mobile game during the 2016 election.