This election was a tough and controversial one. We thought the 2020 election was crazy, but it was nothing compared to 2024. That being said, Harris ran a very good campaign – but how good was it considering that she lost the election? I have seen many people giving their analysis on her campaign and how it did and didn’t work in her favor. Here is why, all summed up.
Harris ran her campaign primarily through TikTok, which is considered to be a “Gen Z” app. And although the TikToks that were being posted were funny and relatable to the people under age 30, what about the rest of the age groups of the voters? A lot of the posts had to do with her infamous line where she says, “You think you fell out of a coconut tree,” as well as her utilizing singer Charli XCX’s, Brat to market herself toward the targeted audience. But realistically, the only people that would understand these jokes are mainly Gen Z-aged people.
The marketability of these memes was funny. It felt validating to have a candidate who seemed to understand that young people are the future of America. But with the target audience being solely Gen Z, it missed out on the relatability to the older generations, thus, leading to the fact that her fanbase being mainly Gen Z was clearly not enough for her to win the election.
It begs the question of why there was a lack of Democratic young voters. It seemed like behind the celebrity endorsements and amount of influencers campaigning for her on their social media, that she was going to win. It was shocking to be watching the election live and realizing that she wasn’t going to win. After the presidential debate, I thought she had the election in the bag, considering she undeniably won the debate in terms of how she handled the situation compared to Trump.
I’ve heard people say that the reason she didn’t win the election is because behind all of the social media posts from her, TikTok never really showed what her view was and how she was going to fix social and political issues in America. It was more just focused on appealing to the emotions of the voters, but lacked logic in the fact that when you look at her posts prior to the election, there are no posts discussing her policy.
In conclusion, although she ran a beautiful campaign that paired with an amazing message for America, there was not enough discussion of policy or relatability among all voting ages in the U.S. for this election.