The marked change in tone first appeared in a press release on July 25. Recounting an interview Trump gave to Fox News, the Harris campaign invoked one of its favorite hobby horses, Project 2025, but also said, “Trump is old and quite weird?”
While the “weird” strategy might be new for Democrats, Republicans have been using it for years under a different name: cringe.
Since Gamergate, right-wing provocateurs have painted Democrats and liberals as cringe. Go to YouTube and you’ll find countless videos titled something like “SJWS OWNED COMPILATION #2” or “SJW Cringe & Feminist Fails Compilation” with millions upon millions of views. Some creators have built entire digital careers off roasting “cringey” leftists. It’s how the blue-haired liberal stereotype originated and colored conservative views of liberals for years.
For the first time, the Republicans are on the receiving end of a cringe crusade. It doesn’t help that the former president’s party is now made up of political influencers and partners like LibsofTikTok, random Roman statue avatars, and even “party elder Catturd.” It’s made it nearly impossible for them to escape the weirdo accusations, and it also doesn’t help that in response to the attacks, they’ve just acted even stranger.
Vance’s personal history isn’t doing him any favors either. Kyle Tharp, who writes the FWIW newsletter (it’s great, go sub!), says. “As an elder millennial, [Vance has] clearly spent a ton of time on these male-dominated right-wing corners of the internet, and so that’s, unfortunately or fortunately, informed a lot of the talking points that he’s gonna deploy.”
On TikTok and X, the right’s reaction to the switch-up has mostly supplied Democrats with more ammo. And the Harris campaign is taking advantage of it: Since Harris took over the BidenHQ TikTok, the account’s following has quintupled in size, and she’s been able to ride the wave of favorable content without becoming cringe herself. As of right now, the winds are in her favor, but like we’ve seen with Trump and Vance, it may not last forever.
The Chatroom
This week, I’ve written a lot on how everyone from Swifties to politicians are using social media to organize and communicate with voters. I like to think I have my finger on the pulse of everything interesting going on in the space, but I have my blind spots. What kind of interesting political organizing have you seen on social media that I should know about?
Something I haven’t mentioned about Harris’ digital strategy is how they’re organizing community Zoom calls. At this point in the cycle, supporters are at their most enthusiastic, and the campaign wants to capitalize on that energy beyond inspiring TikTok edits. In many of these Zoom calls, Harris campaign staff walk attendees through their phone and text banking systems and point them toward volunteering. It looks like the campaign understands that this excitement won’t last forever, and they’re showing voters how to support them offline as well.