Kamala Harris, the queen of memes: how she is winning over young voters on social media

Even before she is officially nominated as a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris is a social phenomenon: from Instagram to Tik Tok, memes depicting her are spreading rapidly.

The 59-year-old represents a momentous turning point for the Democratic Party compared to 81-year-old Joe Biden, whose age has caused his ability to beat his opponent Donald Trump to be seriously questioned. Harris's campaign team is leveraging the potential of memes to make inroads with a younger, perpetually online demographic.

Harris's predisposition to play with memes to engage young voters is indeed significant: this is how she might be able to convince younger voters who receive news from social media, distancing herself from traditional presidential campaign communication. It is also a way to highlight the contrast between her and Trump, who is now the oldest presidential candidate in US history.

The social crowd went wild, retrieving old footage of Harris and editing it. The result was viral memes, including one in which Harris dances and his tutorial on how to prepare a turkey.

In a particularly viral clip from 2023, Harris told a story in which her mother asked, "Do you think you fell off a coconut?" and then added, "You exist in the context of everything you live in and everything that came before you." Countless memes about coconuts followed.