On September 10th, 2024, members of the Yale College Democrats (Yale Dems) excitedly gathered in Davies Auditorium to watch the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. While many Dems sported official blue Harris-Walz merch, one student wore a campaign t-shirt that turned more than a few heads. Splashed across the shirt’s neon green background were three words written in all lowercase: ‘kamala is brat.’
The statement refers to Charli XCX’s popular album Brat, an album whose energetic vibe permeated everything from pop culture to politics in the summer of 2024. Sporting its signature green album cover with the album name written in lowercase Ariel font, the album has been associated with the messy, fun, carefree aspects of womanhood. On July 21st, Charli XCX tweeted “kamala IS brat” from her X account, beginning a domino effect of Brat and other pop-culture references being used in association with Harris’ campaign. From “demo(brat)” shirts to Chappell Roan references in social media posts, the new “Kamala HQ” has taken full advantage of Gen Z trends on social media to appeal to young voters.
Donning the popular ‘kamala is brat’ shirt, sophomore Jack Dozier has taken advantage of the same social media trends Harris’ campaign has used while creating TikTok and Instagram content for the Yale Dems. This has meant including music from Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter in his TikTok videos, in addition to plenty of neon green messaging.
“I did a lot of campaign work over the summer and immediately felt the boost after Vice President Harris became the nominee, or presumptive nominee,” Dozier said. “I felt the boost come first from within our generation, from within Generation Z, because of Chapell Roan, Charli XCX, and all of these contemporary artists who are popular with people in our age group and with myself. I can just remember so many videos I saw on Twitter or even in the New York Times where they were trying to explain, you know, what ‘Kamala is brat’ means to an older demographic. I mean that change felt insurmountable, it was electrifying.”
Dozier added that he’s seen references to Brat everywhere in the political world—from a TikTok video of Virginia representative Abigail Spanberger dancing to Charli’s song “Apple” to a brat green Kamala button that was “the most coveted thing” at the DNC in August.
“I’m excited to see that more and more people are maybe interested in the election and are following it closely,” said Dozier, who’s worked on political campaigns as a Yale Dems elections fellow. “More people are donating, buying merchandise, and I just find that really admirable.”
Another member of Yale Dems, junior Noam Bellin-Schonfeld, felt that the Harris campaign’s fresh media had increased political enthusiasm among many of his friends.
“In terms of my friends, that’s where I’ve seen the biggest difference,” Bellin-Schonfeld said. “So I have several friends, including Yale Democrats, by the way, who are super engaged, but who just felt downtrodden, after Biden’s debate performance that ended his very, very successful political career. . . But I was enthusiastic to see that those same people, once the campaign had [Kamala Harris] on the ballot, shifted, were the ones who became the most enthusiastic.”
Bellin-Schonfeld, who has also worked on multiple political campaigns with Yale Dems, provided an additional analytical perspective on Harris’ media approach.
“What Kamala Harris has done by her strategies of appealing to you, and simply by the fact that she is younger and viewed as more able to take on the challenge of Donald Trump, is that she is managing to appeal to youth voters,” he said. “I think that using the type of language and the phrases that people our age can understand from the trends we listen to is going to be vital in terms of reaching this critical audience. So absolutely, yes, I think that that is the right choice of action.”
The number’s aren’t lying. According to CBS, #kamalaharris is trending on TikTok, having gained over 100 million views in just one week in mid-July. But is appealing to young voters with social media trends enough to sway those who are undecided?
Abhinay Lingareddy, chairman of the Yale Political Union’s Independent Party (IP), told The Politic that he’s observed a variety of reactions to the Harris campaign’s new approach within the IP.
“There’s a lot of people that were undecided when it was Biden versus Trump who have now decided to vote for Harris rather than Trump,” Lingarredy said.
He also added that he’s noticed the confidence of some right-leaning IP members fall as Harris’s internet popularity has surged.
“We have Trump supporters within the party,” he said. “With the Trump supporters, I feel a sense of fear. They sense ‘wow, something’s gonna happen.’”
On the other hand, Lingareddy observed that some people he knows have felt put off by the Harris campaign’s use of flashy media to appeal to voters.
“What I would say is that some of our more moderate and right leaning members are sort of deterred by it. I think that what drew them to Biden-Harris and all that originally was that they were sort of above being different.” As election day approaches on November 5th, Yale’s voters have a choice to make. While some have had their vote decided for months and others remain undecided, a few might be humming Brat on their way to the polls.