With Harris and Trump being neck and neck in recent polls, each of their campaign teams is scrambling to reign in as many votes as possible, especially votes from Gen Z. But how can each campaign grasp the attention of these skeptical, first-time voters? The answer has been revealed in the form of neon-green memes, shirt-ripping wrestlers, and surprising celebrity endorsements. The answer has come in the form of pop culture.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign team has taken a unique approach to the “pop culture to the presidency” road map. Mere hours after she announced she was running for president, the Kamala HQ TikTok account was born, and memes flooded the pages of millions. One very popular meme came from a speech Harris delivered in 2023. “ You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” Harris said.
After that segment went viral, thousands of TikTok users started posting other clips of the presidential candidate to Chappell Roan’s Femininomenon, and numerous songs from Charli XCX’s album Brat. Kamala HQ embraced this and changed its X account header to match Brat’s neon green look.
This overnight explosion of videos caught the attention of major news sources such as CNN and Fox News. This exposure across social media and news networks gave the emerging Harris campaign the fuel it so desperately needed.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign team has taken a different approach to the pop culture strategy. In early August, internet personality Adin Ross live-streamed his meeting with Trump on the platform Kick. During this stream, Ross gifted Trump a Tesla Cybertruck and a Rolex. This event became hot news, and generated clips that reached millions, and propelled Trump’s presence among younger voters.
Trump’s pop culture usage has also caught the attention of multiple news outlets. At multiple rallies, Trump mentioned the “…late, great Hannibal Lecter” from the cult classic The Silence Of the Lambs. MSNBC, The Washington Post, and AP News are just a few news outlets who reported on these moments.
Each candidate also has a large number of pop culture icons as endorsements. Joe Exotic, Lil Wayne, Zachary Levi, and Kanye are just a few celebrities who have announced their support for Trump. During July’s RNC, wrestler Hulk Hogan made an appearance, in which he ripped his shirt to reveal a Trump shirt, and announced his support for the former president.
George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Lawrence, Bryan Cranston, and most recently Anne Hathaway, have announced their support for Harris. After September’s presidential debate, Taylor Swift pledged her support for Harris in an Instagram post that has since gained over eleven million likes.
While celebrity endorsements don’t directly confirm that fans will vote the same as their favorite celebrity, they are still vital. Endorsements encourage people to be aware of their political options, and it influences them to register to vote.
The circumstances of the 2024 presidential election have made it necessary for both candidates to explore avenues unfamiliar to them, and this effort has not been in vain. Harris and Trump have become well-known to young voters, individuals who aren’t old enough to vote, and those who don’t care for politics, all because of their social media presence and integration of pop culture into their campaigns.