Many who are up-to-date with the 2024 presidential election have seen the campaigns of all nominees, from Jill Stein to Donald Trump. With that comes targeting advertisement, which Vice President Kamala Harris took advantage of in a rather neat way: tailoring her social media posts towards Generation Z. Through adopting new trends, Harris has gained support from all over, like British pop singer Charli XCX and American rapper Cardi B who both publicly endorsed her.
There has been a backlash on some of Harris’ rallies and posts, though. Numerous conservatives have been throwing misogynistic and racist comments regarding Megan Thee Stallion’s performance, ‘Hotties for Harris’ in Atlanta, Georgia. Although she censored most inappropriate content, right-winged users on social media relentlessly bashed the performance and questioned what Harris’ platform advocated for. One Republican viewer referred to the Leftist movement as “pure ghetto trash” on X (previously Twitter), while a TikTok commenter stated, “A complete mockery of our country, pure trash.” Most hate has been thrown around on X because of its highly critical users. Hence, Harris primarily markets on platforms that have a younger and more open-minded audience that is more impressionable. Naturally, voters under 30 tend to lean left, so Harris wants to ensure that she has their votes.
This raises the question: Is Harris’ customized campaign beneficial for her presidential run and the United States (US)?
Harris’ marketing towards Generation Z is simple—posting comical TikTok videos of highly relevant content allows her to blow up and leave the viewers with a good and lasting impression. The outcome of this strategy drastically shifted from when Biden was running, with Harris’ marketing team’s account garnering over 4 million followers and almost 100 million likes on TikTok. Her management account, KamalaHQ, uses trendy sounds to spread her image to younger generations. She recently voiced her concerns about Trump’s Project 2025, using the song Symphony by Clean Bandit. Through embracing her campaign as “Brat,” she has become a TikTok sensation, having edits created of her by supporters, as shown below.
How Vice President Kamala Harris became “brat”
By using the humor of Generation Z, Harris leaves a lasting impression on her audience—the spectrum is expansive—from advocating for her presidency to stating that she is making a fool of herself. Right-winged voters are not her only concern with running for the presidency; instead, it is Democrats who do not like Harris’ stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
Jill Stein, who is running for the Green Party, voices concerns similar to Harris and many Leftists. Therefore, though Harris’ marketing tactic is working to a large extent, some voters are flocking to Stein specifically for their differing views on the crisis in the Middle East. Harris doesn’t want to change the relationship between the US and Israel—showing support for their defense after October 7th—meanwhile, Stein wants to halt funding that the US sends to Israel.
Harris has a good marketing tactic, but could some of her conflicting political views with Leftists result in her getting elected?
In summation, yes. There is almost 100% certainty that either Trump or Harris will become the next president. This means those who elected Jill Stein are “wasting their votes.” Now, if you consider yourself a Democrat, why should you not vote for Stein?
Her minimal management, government, and foreign policy experience will wreak havoc on the US in the coming years. One of her goals is to close foreign military bases and get rid of our nukes. On another note, her only experience working in government is serving on her town council board, governing over 30,000 people. Even though some people may agree with Stein’s policies, her career and experience do not align with her credentials to be president.
Since most of Stein’s voters would have voted for Harris otherwise, is Stein handing Trump the win? In 2016, certain states leaned towards the third party, leading Hillary Clinton to defeat 232 to 290. Had these states leaned left and voted for Clinton, she would have won with 307 votes. This demonstrates the power that these third-party political candidates have in elections—with Stein running again, she will take states (surely not enough to win). This will inevitably cause a repeat of the 2016 election, where Trump won because of Stein.
Through marketing towards younger generations, Harris is amassing many voters—some of these do not like all of her views on crises, causing them to vote for Stein. Her techniques have been successful thus far and can lead to her winning the 2024 election, but the vote will surely be a close one with Trump.
Written by Michael Shohat
