Democrats Are Finally Harnessing the Power of the Internet
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Democratic Ticket Was Dead. Now It Has the Chaotic Energy of the Internet., It’s a far cry from whatever Dark Brandon was., Harris-Walz campaign is successfully leaning into memes and internet trends
When President Joe Biden announced he would step down and make way for Kamala Harris’ ascension to the Democratic nomination, the pent-up energies of liberals, progressives, and even never-Trump moderates flooded the race and boosted Harris to something Democrats had been missing: electoral viability. (She’s now statistically tied with Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages.)
The internet was clearly ready for something different. Armed with Brat memes, coconut emojis, Veep videos, and old videos of Harris speaking like a Chardonnay-addled mom at happy hour, social media users of all shades of blue turned Harris into someone infinitely cooler and more fun than she is in real life. The Harris of the campaign trail is still the same smooth-talking former prosecutor, with plenty of bona fides that should attract voters, but what resonates with Gen Z and millennial voters on Instagram and TikTok, and even cringier Resistance Liberals on Facebook and X, is different. They need a political superhero with catchphrases and signature moves—and that’s what the KHive, now enveloped by the wider internet-using Democratic Party, transformed her into. That’s what the Biden campaign team wanted when they bolstered the once sprightly Joe into a Ray-Banned, ice cream munching, no-malarkey-taking caricature—and then something more sardonic with the Dark Brandon meme.
Even if Harris was handed her nomination, even if her campaign staffers have deftly groomed this persona, even if Harris has been wise enough not to turn her good vibes into something cringe by outwardly playing into the online vibes, she still had the difficult task of picking a running mate that would boost her stature on the campaign trail and online. Or, at least, one who wouldn’t cramp her style. And that’s easier said than done when your cornucopia of options has the demographic makeup of a Wilco concert.
But Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz proved himself as the internet’s favorite white dad with a simple and surprisingly innovative strategy: calling Republicans ‘weird.’ Walz’s Midwestern charm and straight-talking quickly transformed him from someone many Democrats had never heard of into a leading communications strategist—with candidates up and down the ballot following his lead. As it turns out, calling a weird dude like J.D. Vance ‘weird’ is rather effective, and has caused Vance and his party-mates to contort themselves to prove he’s not, in fact, weird. (He is weird.) Now, there’s a simple word that Democrats are using to describe Trump, Vance, and the Republican Party’s fondness for controlling women’s bodies, dreaming up conspiracy theories, and, uh, whatever Trump is talking about with his references to the ‘late, great Hannibal Lecter.’
Walz ascended to the ticket not by hailing from the most purple of purple swing states—as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shaprio would have—but by creating a political meme of his own, and one of the most effective ones in recent memory at that. Vance’s favorability has only plummeted since voters have gotten to hear more from him, a trend perhaps aided by the simple word for what he is: weird.
On Tuesday, after Walz was announced as Harris’ vice presidential pick, X was full of memes. ‘You think you just waltzed out of a coconut tree?’ one user wrote. The phrase ‘Balls to the Walz’ was everywhere, as were pictures of the Minnesota governor nestling a piglet in his arms with a beaming smile. Republicans had no response.
And while Harris is steering away from embracing her newfound online persona, Walz is already making references to J.D. Vance and couches, an obviously made-up internet joke that’s stuck to Vance. And the campaign itself is meme-ing Walz, too: It quickly sold $1 million of Harris-Walz camo hats, an attempt to reclaim the middle-of-the-country aesthetic that’s been co-opted by the Republican Party for years. Walz is an avid hunter, after all, and he’s quickly becoming the internet’s all-American dad.
Walz the meme-maker might soon be Walz the vice president. The high school football coach turned politician might have just accomplished his greatest feat yet by listening to the voters and putting their feelings into words. That’s what great politicians do.
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