What is Different About the Kamala Harris Campaign

Ever since the jaw-dropping announcement that Joe Biden would be stepping out of the race for President and endorsed Kamala Harris, there has been a sense of hope surrounding the Democratic party that has been lacking for quite some time.

In the 24 hour period after Harris stepped up to be the presumptive Democratic nominee, the Harris campaign raised a stunning $81 million in under 24 hours, blowing previous fundraising goals completely out of the water.

This has left many people wondering: What is different about this campaign? Why are people who have never donated to any political campaign donating to the Harris campaign? Why do people seem far more excited about this campaign than any of the previous Democratic campaigns?

All of these questions lead to this: What is Kamala Harris doing differently?

First of all, we need to look at the differences in our candidates. Up until this announcement, many Americans were not happy with either candidate, stating that both candidates were too old, too out of touch, or just not appealing. When you are set on two options you are not very happy with, wishing you had a different option, then out of the woodwork another option arises, this creates a sense of relief and rejuvenation. This is part of the phenomena of the Kamala Harris campaign, when options look sparse, then a miracle appears to happen, people will see anything that is a step up from their current options as a massive win.

Secondly, we have witnessed a huge uptick in the amount of young voters registering to vote after Kamala Harris announced she would be running for President. In the first 48 hours after the announcement, more than 38,500 people registered to vote, 85% of those being voters under 35.

A massive appeal of Kamala Harris is that she is about 20 years younger than both her opponent, and the former Democratic nominee. One of the aspects of Joe Biden that concerned people the most was his age and mental stamina, so Harris is a huge relief for voters who found this to be their deepest worry.

Harris has completely embraced the younger generation through social media in a genius campaign strategy. Since the @BidenHQ on TikTok has become the @KamalaHQ, views, likes, and followers have skyrocketed. The average views per TikTok has increased 12-fold from 500k to 6 million, all due to the creativity of the Harris campaign team. With over 121 million Americans on TikTok, this platform creates a unique opportunity for a candidate to connect with voters, especially in the younger demographic. About a ⅓ of Americans under the age of 30 also regularly get their news from TikTok, emphasizing its importance for political candidates to make their mark on the app.

The campaign has taken advantage of popular trends that already existed about Kamala Harris, embraced “Brat Summer” an idea coined by artist Charli XCX making their X mainpage the same font and color as the “Brat” album, and have received endorsements from celebrities such as George Clooney, Olivia Rodrigo, Mark Cuban, and more.

There have also been independent campaigns in support of Kamala Harris that have raised a large sum of money for her campaign in the past weeks. This includes, Win with Black Women who raised over 1.5 million dollars in a 90 minute zoom call, “White Dudes for Harris” an event that featured Mark Hamill of Star Wars which raised over $4 million and emphasized why white men should vote for Harris, “Comics for Kamala”, and more.

To put it simply, the Harris campaign is unlike any other campaign we have witnessed in American history. Not only is it the latest that a nominee has put their hat in the ring for a Presidential election due to a completely unprecedented drop out by Joe Biden, but it also represents the first time that we will have a Black woman or a person of Indian descent as the nominee of a major party.

People are excited, and there is a feeling of hope that has been missing from the Democratic party for quite some time, but the job is just beginning. As much as the excitement surrounding the campaign is hopeful for many, this needs to be translated into action at the polls on or before election day for any of it to matter.

To register to vote in your state please refer to this link to do so.