Kamala Has Biggest Rally Yet, but People Might Be Showing Up for Someone Else
Vice President Kamala Harris’ biggest groups of fans — the media and Democrats — both showed up in force at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday.
But were the media and Democrats there for Harris? Or were they there for a free concert?
I know it’s difficult to tell the two groups apart sometimes. Here’s a hint: The media is excited because people are finally showing up to rallies for a presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The Democrats are excited to turn up to a rally which is essentially a free concert for one of the biggest rap stars on the planet.
The New York Times called the event with “about 10,000 supporters in the battleground state of Georgia” a “boisterous rally” — and it drew crowds that were more in line with what Trump generally draws and which Times reporter Maya King noted was significantly more than President Joe Biden would be able to turn out.
“It’s really hard to overstate just how different the environment is for Democrats now,” King wrote in an update on the Times’ live election update page.
King added: “Just two weeks ago, it would have been nearly impossible to imagine President Biden turning out a rally of Georgia Democrats like this one, with around 10,000 people here at the Georgia State University convocation center tonight.”
It was, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Harris’ largest crowd yet.
However, this was just a little while after King acknowledged that Harris had turned out the crowd, in part, by promising them a free concert in return.
“Megan Thee Stallion has taken the stage at the Harris rally, performing her biggest hits, ‘Hot Girl’ and ‘Mamushi,’ with her and her background dancers clad in blue suits,” King noted. “It’s the clearest illustration yet of just how different the Democratic presidential campaign is under Harris — and how much she’s energizing a part of the Democratic coalition that had been checked out.”
This much is indeed true; Harris’ campaign skews younger and more pop-culture friendly, including pop star Charli XCX’s now infamous social media post claiming that “kamala IS brat.”
kamala IS brat
— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024
And what is “brat,” you might ask? No, Ms. XCX didn’t forget the definite article there. In addition to being the title of her latest terrible album, it’s also described thusly by the British singer, as per Gothamist: “That girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it. It’s very honest. It’s very blunt — a little bit volatile, does dumb things, but, like, it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
So we’re in agreement, then: Kamala is, indeed, “brat.” If only that were an endorsement to anyone over 30.
For instance, she definitely “says dumb things” more than sometimes, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Also, a woman “who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it” probably isn’t the description of who you want in the Oval Office when, say, tensions between Israel and Iran reach a boiling point and you need a steady hand to ensure World War III doesn’t break out.
But sure: Elect VP Brat.
And Megan Thee Stallion wasn’t the only celebrity out there in Atlanta, it’s worth noting: “Quavo, the Atlanta native and frontman of the rap group Migos took the stage, not to perform but to address the crowd. He talked about his work with the Biden administration to pass gun safety laws,” King wrote.
The problem here is that ardency from the youthful Democratic base in urban areas does not necessarily equal victory.
The reason Joe Biden got elected president in 2020 — and was keeping himself on the ballot in 2024 — is he was quite literally the last remaining vestige of the party’s pre-Watergate big tent era. Sure, he took office after the burglary happened, but before it was a major scandal that went all the way to the top.
In January of 1973, when Biden first took his seat as a senator from Delaware, most of America thought it was, to use the words of Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, “a third-rate burglary.”
The problem was that, by the 2024 election, he had very clearly lost young and minority voters, a key part of that grand coalition that the Democrats have had trouble keeping together. He was pretty much losing everyone else, too, after it became clear in the wake of the June 27 debate, that he’d lost what little of his marbles were remaining.
However, by switching to Vice President Harris, the Democrats have essentially swapped out one demographic problem for another.
Sure, younger and more diverse voters might be attracted to a candidate that “IS brat” and can get Megan Thee Stallion to perform free concerts for her, but this cult of celebrity does little to attract working class and older independent voters that tended toward Biden in 2020. In fact, it repels them, which is part of why Kamala wasn’t originally supposed to be the standard-bearer this year in the first place: She couldn’t keep the coalition together. The center would not hold.
It’s not screaming Megan Thee Stallion fans, but those working-class voters who Harris needs to win over in order to take the swing states of the Rust Belt and the South. Rap concerts may bring out audiences, but it doesn’t bring in the demographics she needs — and without them, there’s no reasonable path to 270 electoral votes in November for Kamala.
Harris can be brat, or she can be president. She likely can’t be both, and Charli XCX and I both agree she’s definitely the former. Do the math.
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