Explained: Why Is Kamala Harris Embracing the 'Brat' Label All of a Sudden?
It may seem counter-intuitive to embrace being called a “brat,” but 2024 has already been a wildly topsy-turvy year, so why not?
Vice President Kamala Harris — who has suddenly found herself as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president after incumbent President Joe Biden abruptly suspended his re-election bid on Sunday — is embracing that typically pejorative label in her uphill bid to win the November general election.
The origins of the Harris campaign’s favorite new label are explained rather simply: It’s from British pop star Charli XCX.
kamala IS brat
— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024
On Monday, the British performer took to social media platform X to declare: “kamala IS brat.”
Charli XCX, of course, was using that term in an endearing manner, given that her 2024 album was titled “brat” and she very much meant that term in a positive way.
The British singer said so herself when describing the use of the term in a TikTok clip.
“You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and, like, maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” Charli XCX said. “Who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown. But kind of, like, parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Yeah, like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
Additionally, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Charli XCX has said that the term “represents an attitude, a type of brazen confidence amid the messiness that has clearly struck a chord with Gen Z and millennials.”
Indeed, the Charli XCX post has garnered a shocking number of views (over 50 million) and likes (over 320,000) as of early Tuesday afternoon — so it’s little surprise that the Harris campaign has embraced the viral endorsement.
On the team’s official rapid response X account, the Harris campaign changed its header to the green background/lowercase black font styling of the “brat” album, while a sizable contingent of Harris supporters are running with the meme of it all:
kamala harris edit to 360 by charli xcx.
gen-z wants a brat presidency 💅🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/INhEiPdQx3
— Dream for America (@DreamAmerica_) July 11, 2024
Couple of observations:
- It’s clear that the Harris campaign is targeting younger voters — typically the most unreliable type of voter — with this new “brat” campaign.
- Her campaign, unlike Biden’s, seems to have the wherewithal to run with Harris’ typical word-salad gaffes instead of trying to hide them under a rug. The above viral clip almost embraces Harris’ verbal fumbles, something in line with Charli XCX’s description of “brat.”
And given this new direction of the Harris-[Insert future VP candidate here] ticket … it’s more than fair to wonder if Republicans had grown just a smidgen too complacent with the way Trump was clobbering Biden in the polls, especially after a one-sided presidential debate and failed assassination attempt that gave Trump a surge of momentum in the polls.
But now, that momentum seems to be shifting to the side of the Democrats.
(It does remain to be seen if Harris has actual momentum or if her momentum is just an illusion because Biden’s been so bad in comparison.)
Have celebrity endorsements necessarily panned out in the past for Democrats? Of course not.
But it would be both naive and incredibly arrogant to dismiss this seeming new strategy from the Harris campaign for one simple reason: It eerily echos the strategy used by Trump in his great 2016 presidential election upset win over Hillary Clinton.
Remember how Trump took the insult “deplorables” and turned it into a rallying cry for his supporters?
That’s not all that different from embracing Harris’ propensity to speak on and on and on about nothing in particular.
Even on a macro level, there are similarities.
For better and for worse, Trump has successfully turned American politics into professional wrestling. And he did that by drawing in swaths of people who cared little about politics before Trumpian bombast and showmanship became the new norm.
Harris is similarly trying to draw in swaths of Gen Z voters (and perhaps even some older Gen Alpha voters for a potential second term) who normally wouldn’t care a lick about politics — but who may dig the new viral clip of Harris proudly acting a fool to the tunes of Charli XCX.
According to Real Clear Politics’ aggregate averages, Harris is about 1.6 points behind Trump in what could shape up to be a stunningly competitive general election.
For anyone sick of Bidenomics and the general direction the country is taking, Harris should be taken as a new threat that Biden never was. Even if this is just some honeymoon phase for Harris and the Democrats, 1.6 points is not that much of a difference.
It’s important for Republicans to get out and vote — lest they suffer as stunning a loss as 2016 to a self-proclaimed “brat.”
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