Last week, I was asked things like, “Wait, is it: Kamala Harris is a brat, or she’s brat?” and, “What’s a Chappell Roan?”
It’s fun hosting on The Hill TV as a youth voter. Translating the biggest news of the week for Gen Z is how I gained my TikTok following. Now, it seems that it’s time to translate Gen Z to the news.
Kamala Harris lives rent-free in Gen Z’s head, which means they are thinking about her a lot. My content stream on TikTok is flooded with videos of 20-somethings recapping the biggest hits of Harris’s career, summer fan cams inspired by British pop singer Charli xcx’s hit song, “Brat” and its new ties to the Harris campaign and the coconut tree thing, which hit Gen Z’s For You page long before the mainstream media noticed.
Harris’s virality isn’t just entertainment. It had a hand in boosting her campaign and raising $100 million in its first 72 hours.
That said, the internet, along with America’s youngest voters, can turn against her just as fast. With all eyes on Kamala, her next move matters more than ever.
The coconut tree stuff isn’t new. Months before she became the presumptive nominee, Harris’s voice emerged as a popular TikTok sound. A “sound” becomes popular when users make videos lip-syncing or attaching different visuals to an audio recording.
In Harris’ case, it was her delivering the now-famous lines: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
When Biden was showing cognitive decline on the debate stage, Kamala Harris was an increasingly desirable 2024 contender. Already associated with the coconut tree, those who wanted Biden to step aside and Harris to step up organically gained an identity. On X, users added palm tree and coconut emojis to their usernames. They began making the case for Harris.
Republicans have called the replacement of Biden with Kamala Harris a coup without an army. It wasn’t a coup, but there was an army behind it — the coconut army.
The coconut tree wasn’t Harris’s first viral moment on TikTok, nor her last. Her congratulatory phone call to Biden after winning the White House in 2020 did numbers.
“We did it Joe!” she said, smiling.
Following the debate, Harris went viral again. This time, it was a two-minute-long compilation video of Harris repeating the same message, urging a focus on “what can be — unburdened by what has been.”
This was the perfect encapsulation of how young voters felt about Biden being replaced by Harris. It solidified Harris’s spotlight online and became the motto of the coconut army.
The coconut army is just as serious as it is a joke. I don’t mean that some people are serious while others are kidding. Most of us are both serious and joking at the same time. While Harris ran to the left of Biden in 2020, she isn’t progressive enough for a lot of young voters. We don’t know if we’re serious yet.
The movement could get serious if Harris delivers on three issues: a vice-presidential pick young people can get behind, supporting a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and clarifying her record on crime.
Harris’s time as California’s attorney general earned her the nickname Copmala and, in 2020, she struggled to defend the criminalization of truancy in California on the debate stage. Harris embraced some restorative justice, opting for policies that helped employ people instead of imprisoning them. She also fought to keep others in prison. Harris is against the death penalty but defended California’s death row process in court. Harris implemented training programs to address racial biases in policing and developed a database to document police shootings, but also failed to investigate key police shootings. Young people want to hear it from Kamala, what federal reforms to the justice system will she fight for as president?
Last week’s protests across D.C. surrounded Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Harris released a statement condemning the protestors’ actions. It was seen as a slight to young, pro-Palestine coconut-heads.
As I’ve heard my peers put it, putting this letter out is her “failing an open book test.” It’s not too late to pass this test. Harris was early to call out Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. It’s simple but not simplistic: Young people are looking for a commitment that a Harris administration will not co-sign and sponsor Israel’s actions as Biden did.
This spring, young people organized across college campuses to demand their universities divest from Israel. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), another veepstakes front runner, infamously equated campus protesters to the Ku Klux Klan. Labor is a key issue for young voters. Picking Shapiro would likely disband the coconut army.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) was the only Democrat who hadn’t initially endorsed the PRO act (Protecting the Right to Organize) until last week.
Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Roy Cooper of North Carolina would be better picks.
Walz is a fantastic communicator, sparking the wave of Democrats nationwide calling MAGA-supporting Republicans “weird” for spewing anti-women rhetoric. Walz also has a progressive record of policy success in Minnesota, most notably the school lunch program that saves families thousands.
Beshear is already effectively countering JD Vance’s messaging and has his own online movement. Referencing the venture capitalist’s obsessive focus on his humble upbringing, Beshear hit back at Vance’s self-proclaimed Appalachian connection: “He ain’t from here.” X users flooded timelines with #heaintfromhere tweets about Vance. Beshear comes with his own online army and folksy relatability.
Roy Cooper will not be governor in 2024, so there would be no loss of a Democratic gubernatorial election or office with him. He has been a champion on abortion, and proven to win in the South when Trump is on the ballot. However, he bowed out of vice presidential consideration on Monday night.
Passing these three tests will deliver the coconut army. The book is wide open; now, it’s up to Kamala Harris to read it.
Jessica Burbank is a host of The Hill TV’s “Rising” and has hosted The Young Turks. She is known for her TEDx talk, “A New Direction for the US Economy,” and creates video content for More Perfect Union and TikToks with Gen Z for Change.