Politics
Sinead Butler
Jul 26, 2024
Kamala Harris appears on RuPaul's Drag Race with election message
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Vice president Kamala Harris is the talk of TikTok, and now she has officially joined the social media platform.
If you haven't seen all of the Harris "brat' meme edits on your feed, then you've probably been living under a rock - we've collected the best ones here.
It all started when Charli XCX endorsed the presumptive Democrat nominee when the British singer declared on X, formerly Twitter "Kamala IS brat."
Ever since people have been making viral videos that combine music from Charli's latest album brat with memes of Harris - the most famous one being when the VP says with a laugh: "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?"
After amassing a Gen Z following via TikTok, Harris decided now is the perfect time in her campaign to join in on the fun by creating a TikTok account.
“Well I’ve heard that recently, I’ve been on the For You page, so I thought I’d get on here myself,” Harris said, talking directly to the camera in her first video.
@kamalaharris Thought it was about time to join!
In the caption, she added: "Though it was about time to join!"
Since posting the video, it has received over 4.7m views and so far she has over 1.3m followers, while in her account bio is the slogan "When we fight, we win."
Viewers quickly took to the comment section to welcome Harris to the platform - and of course mentioned that coconut meme.
One person said: "PROJECT COCONUT."
"Can't wait till she finds the coconut tree audios," another person wrote.
Someone else added: "My for you page is existing in the context," and a fourth person commented: "WELCOME BIG SISTER GENERAL."
Meanwhile, Harris being a hit on TikTok is reflected in the new Axios/Generation Lab poll where Harris has more than triple the lead over Trump (+20 per cent) in the 18- to 34-year-old demographic, compared to Biden (+6 per cent).
There has been discussions over the TikTok's security and the platform's Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, with the app being banned on US government devices in at least 39 states.
The VP noted how TikTok helps to make people money and share information, benefits which are "very important" but also addressed the security concerns.
"We need to deal with the owner and we have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok, but we have no intention to ban TikTok,” Harris previously said on the issue in an interview with ABC News back in March.
Though the platform could face a ban if ByteDance doesn't divest its stake in TikTok within a year, a requirement that Biden signed into law in April but the company has stated it will not do this.
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