Vice President Kamala Harris‘s 2020 presidential campaign leaned into an online presence in an attempt to swing young voters to no avail, but her attempts to woo young voters in the 2024 campaign may already be working.
A new poll from Axios/Generation Lab shows Harris leading former President Donald Trump with young voters ages 18-34 by 20%, for a 60%-40% advantage. The survey, conducted after President Joe Biden dropped out of the campaign, also showed Biden with only a 53%-47% lead over Trump with the younger demographic.
In 2020, Biden won voters ages 18-29 over Trump 60%-36%, according to a CNN exit poll. The Axios/Generation Lab poll released Thursday shows Harris back in line with the 2020 figures, as her campaign’s early efforts have targeted Generation Z online.
Harris’s online campaign in the 2020 Democratic primaries attempted to seize on viral moments, such as her exchange with Biden in a June 2019 debate over busing as a means to end racial segregation, but instead she was mocked in memes, including the “Kamala Harris is a cop” posts that were left-wing criticisms of her record as a prosecutor.
Since her 2024 campaign launched after Biden dropped out and endorsed her on Sunday, the campaign has leaned into viral memes made about her May 2023 remarks where she asked, “you think you just fell out of a coconut tree,” and users on social media declaring her “brat” — in reference to pop artist Charli XCX’s recent album.
Whereas in the 2020 campaign it was part of her flaming out and suspending her efforts in December 2019, the viral online focus in 2024 has given Democrats new energy after a month of despair over Biden’s electoral prospects following his disastrous debate performance in June.
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The Trump campaign cautioned in a memo that there would be a “Harris Honeymoon” in polling, where she would show gains in the early part of her campaign, with the former president’s campaign claiming that the race has not changed despite the expected bump.
Whether Harris’s “brat summer” with young voters will stay confined to the summertime or extend through Election Day in the fall has yet to be seen.