The Trump campaign, meanwhile, relentlessly focused on portraying Biden as too old and too out of it to govern. While Republican discipline isn’t the only reason why this narrative took hold with the public, it doesn’t seem to have hurt.
Now, Flaherty wasn’t wrong when he said the internet has become harder to navigate, let alone go viral on, since the previous election. A video with millions of views may surface onto my For You page but never make it onto yours at all. Building content for niche groups of people may help a campaign target certain demographics, but it doesn’t inspire shared moments like what we’re experiencing with Harris’ online ascendancy.
“The engagement we’re seeing, not just for the vice president’s campaign, but just for every cause since this announcement,” Josh Cook, president of Good Influence, a political influencer network, told me on Tuesday. “There’s just a lot of energy, and it’s benefiting everything across the board.”
Even without Harris’s #KHive supporters, her young(er) age and quirky personality made it easy for her to inspire memes long before she needed them. They created an old-fashioned organic viral moment, painting her in stark contrast to Biden and Trump. Hypertargeting individuals with bespoke content not worth sharing in the group chat didn’t work—the candidate, and what people made of her, did.
(Speaking of fandom groups like the KHive, the Harris campaign does appear to be activating them. In a Wednesday X post, the account Swifties for Harris advertised a Thursday youth call with the campaign.)
The Chatroom
On X this week, New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka asked whether Howard Dean’s infamous scream would have earned him more political capital in 2024 than it did 20 years ago. I’m sure Chayka posed the question at least partly in jest, but I’m going to do my best to answer it earnestly because it’s fun and I want to.
To start, most voters don’t fully tune into an election until much later in the cycle, and after Iowa, Dean’s scream was likely one of the first things many voters learned about him. That first impression would go on to color the rest of his campaign, one in which John Kerry and John Edwards were already gaining ground.
While Dean’s team could have put him on TikTok and scored interviews with popular podcasters prior to his shockingly awful performance at the Iowa caucus in 2004, he would have likely suffered similar destructive consequences today.
Unlike Dean, Kamala Harris is a known quantity, and her replacing of Biden gave her the opportunity to reintroduce herself at a critical moment after the first debate and when the internet was tired of hearing about two old politicians who sucked.
But I want to hear what you think! Is being a silly, goofy little guy more of a liability than it is a benefit? Even online? Leave a comment on the site, or send me an email at mail@wired.com.
💬 Leave a comment below this article.
WIRED Reads
Want more? Subscribe now for unlimited access to WIRED.
What Else We’re Reading
🔗 The moral bankruptcy of Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of the venture capital firm a16z, recently joined the growing chorus of Silicon Valley leaders supporting Trump. In a piece for The Verge this week, Elizabeth Lopatto makes the argument that this rightward momentum is less of a movement and more of a “clique.” (The Verge)
🔗 The Referee Of Political Campaigns In an interview with GOP political technologist Eric Wilson, FEC chair Sean Cooksey says the commission probably won’t roll out any new AI and advertising regulations before the election. (Business of Politics Podcast)
🔗 The Pop Craveification of Breaking News If you’re a normal person who didn’t have push notifications turned on for the Biden campaign’s X account (🫠), you probably heard that he was stepping down from some news outlet or a group chat. Increasingly though, more and more young people are getting their breaking news from shitposters and meme accounts, something Taylor Lorenz wrote about in her newsletter this week. (Taylor Lorenz’s Newsletter)
The Download
On the pod this week, senior writer Lauren Goode joins me, Leah, and David to discuss the coconutpilling of Silicon Valley. Moments after Harris announced that she would be seeking the Democratic nomination, influential billionaires like Reid Hoffman rushed to back her campaign. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts!
Also, I’m sorry if you’re tired of the coconut edits by now, but this one is particularly good and not brat-related!
Thanks for subscribing! If you enjoy reading this newsletter, share it with someone you know. Otherwise, you can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X, and Signal at makenakelly.32.