Just about every time Gen Z opens TikTok, they see a video with clips of Kamala Harris edited together with a song off British pop artist Charli XCX’s album “Brat.” With its fun beats and honest lyrics, “Brat” is considered to be the album of the summer by much of Gen Z.
Harris and this “brat” theme have become an internet sensation over the last couple weeks, and it’s become a huge marketing strategy for Gen Z voters.
But what is “brat?” And why is a politician embracing something that sounds bad? Well, “brat” in this context, is actually a good thing, and the younger crowds are eating it up.
While “brat” normally refers to a whiny child, in this case it means youthful, fun, and a little messy. This is the meaning behind the “Brat” album.
Amanda Kehrberg, a digital media expert from Arizona State University, broke down why this is exactly what Gen Z wants in a political candidate.
“It’s very honest, very open, but someone who says dumb things sometimes,” Kehrberg said. “So it's kind of like pushing back against the overly filtered, overly perfect, clean girl aesthetic, and embracing being messy.”
After Biden endorsed Harris, it wasn’t long before the internet was full of memes and videos of what looks like her dancing to songs off “Brat.”
With Harris being a much younger candidate and “Brat” having a youthful energy to it, the Harris campaign has grasped the aesthetic with both hands.
Before Biden dropped out of the presidential race, many young Democrats were not feeling excited to vote. Noah Scott, a recent graduate from UNR and a big fan of Charli XCX, said that before Harris entered the picture, he felt that Biden struggled to appeal to Gen Z , but he is now fired up for the Harris campaign.
“Embracing this whole 'brat summer', 'brat' aesthetic has been really interesting because it's really cool to see someone at such a high level be able to embrace this and actually do something with the campaign that feels connected to Gen Z,” Scott said.
Charli XCX herself kicked off this trend, stating in a post on X “kamala (sic) IS brat” after Harris became the apparent nominee. This pushed the strategy even further. Kehrberg said this, along with the viral edits of Harris on TikTok, has reinvented the way that people can talk about politics.
“It's just been such a sort of fun way to participate in political discourse,” Kehrberg said. “Does this look like the kind of classic deliberation of democratic society that the founders expected? No. But is it serving a lot of the same purpose? Yes."
Young Democrats are excited to vote for Harris not just because of her relatability to Gen Z, but because they feel that she will actually address their top issues. Many young Democrats were still going to vote for Biden, but weren’t thrilled about it. This was how Alex Villaseñor, a Reno bartender, felt.
“You could see that maybe he wasn't up to par anymore, but I definitely couldn't allow for somebody like Donald Trump to get back into office, especially with so many things at stake this election,” Villaseñor said.
He fears that Republicans in the Supreme Court and Congress are a threat to democracy, but is confident Harris can prevent that if she wins.
“Roe v. Wade was a really big thing, and luckily, Kamala has been very, very outspoken about that even as VP that was something that she championed,” Villaseñor said. “So seeing her as president, I know that she would do a whole lot more to make sure that other things don't get overturned.”
The energy toward Harris shifted seemingly overnight. Her approval rating shot up from 35% to 46%. She broke records with donations for her campaign and received thousands of new volunteers. Markus Kemmelmeier, a professor of sociology at UNR said that this sudden momentum in her campaign is very unusual.
“You will see that in history books, quite frankly,” Kemmelmeier said. “This quick excitement, this release of pent up energy and pent up money is absolutely historic. The United States has never seen anything like this.”
This new traction for Harris and her campaign could ultimately give her a much better shot at winning the election, Kemmelmeier said.
KUNR’s Nick Stewart is a student at the Reynolds School of Journalism.
This story aired on KUNR FM on August 5, 2024.
