A few short months ago, Kamala Harris was 'dragging Biden down' in his bid for re-election. This, after a 2023 NBC survey found she was the most unpopular vice-president since polling began.
And while national polls are showing Harris and Donald Trump neck-and-neck, the president of the top Super PAC backing Harris says that their own internal polling is a disaster.
In order to convince voters that the cackling, intellectually challenged Harris isn't one of the most unpopular politicians in modern history, her campaign has been engaging in a massive astroturfing campaign - paying an 'army' of about 200 social-media influencers to promote her at the event, Bloomberg reports.
Chartreuse green. Coconut trees. Venn diagrams. They’re motifs of a “brat” summer that has memed Kamala Harris into a narrow but perceptible lead against the master of social media — Donald Trump.
Now, as she prepares to be coronated as her party’s nominee in a presidential campaign dominated more by vibes than policy, Harris needs to keep the momentum going. So she is turning to about 200 social-media influencers, who for the first time ever have received privileges such as access to delegates and studio space at the Democratic National Convention.
For example, Monday night's DNC in Chicago featured Deja Foxx, a Columbia University graduate (with less than 150,000 TikTok followers) who describes herself as an activist "leading thought at the intersection of social justice and social media."
@deja_foxx #DNC Day 0 #OOTD ♬ BIRDS OF A FEATHER sped up - Lilly 🎀
Foxx, who worked on Harris' failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, is based in Arizona - where polls are suggesting a tight race over her failure as 'Border Czar.'
Aside from Foxx, four other influencers will speak at the DNC this week: Fox worked on Harris' failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, according to the report.
Hilariously, one of them ('Noor') deleted a post expressing "compassion for the innocent civilians" affected by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
"If I could do one thing differently, it would be to be even clearer about my support for the Palestinian movement for peace and freedom while still sharing my sympathy of course for Israeli civilians," she said. Awkward!
Meanwhile, less 'influential' influencers will be provided access to a special pavilion and luxury box to promote Harris' candidacy - with Democratic aides parading party all-stars to a "blue carpet" to be interviewed by the social media gaggle, which sipped free beer while making clips for their audience.
"I’m not sure I understand it in its entirety, but I think it’s important and certainly it seems to be impactful with young people in particular, so you’ve got to embrace it," Illinois Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia told Bloomberg, which also points out that the focus on influencers "stands in contrast to the Harris campaign's approach so far to journalists."
Since Biden’s exit from the race, the vice president hasn’t sat for an interview with a news organization or taken questions from reporters at a formal press conference. Her opponent Trump is engaging more with the press in a bid to goad Harris into unscripted settings herself, in the hope that she stumbles or reverts back to the more liberal policy positions she espoused before joining Biden’s 2020 campaign as his running mate. -Bloomberg
According to the NY Post, the Harris campaign is looking to enlist some 5,000 online influencers by the November election.
Trying to compete with Trump hype
On Monday, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) admitted that "One of the frustrations for us and our party is that these guys just captured the Internet."
Hilariously, she suggested that 'childless cat ladies' offended by Trump running mate JD Vance "united" after Vance's comment.
In short, the strategy is to mock themselves before MAGA can own said mockery.
"When they go after Kamala for coconut trees, there’s coconut memes, there’s brat summer, there’s her laugh set to Zoom music. We have taken this back."
Meanwhile, Trump campaign senior advisor Alex Brueswitz told the Post: "There is a difference between influence and influencers. They have Harry Sisson who just yells into a Democrat echo chamber, we collaborate with individuals who have massive non-partisan audiences that may be Trump curious."
"The same corporate media that let Biden pull the wool over people’s eyes is doing the same thing with Kamala… she won’t do an interview but she’ll pop up awkwardly into a seven second TikTok," Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Danielle Alvarez told the outlet. "Everything about Trump is authentic and organic whereas people are trying to make Kamala cool because she is not capable of doing it herself."
