As election day grows nearer with both political candidates racing to gain momentum in the polls, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have found themselves competing against one another in order to gain support from Gen Z. As a large part of Gen Z individuals are now reaching voting age, they have become a crucial vote in shaping the outcome of electoral polls. In comparison to older generations, Gen Z tends to gravitate towards social media for sources of both information and entertainment, which is where the presidential candidates have attempted to capture their attention. However, as both candidates work to campaign on social media, it seems that Trump and his team’s attempts to connect with the younger voting generation have been less successful in comparison to Harris’ efforts.
The two politicians have made their social media presences well known; both of them have made official TikTok pages for users to follow for election updates. However, rather than maintaining a serious online reputation, both accounts decided to take a humorous approach, hopping on trends and adopting Gen Z’s humor. As of October 2024, Harris’ [@kamalahq] TikTok page has gained a lot of attention with over 200 million likes and 4.5 million followers. On the other hand, Trump’s [@teamtrump] TikTok has had less traction, with roughly 100 million likes and 3.5 million followers.
During late August 2024, a new TikTok trend emerged where users made posts using Zara Larsson’s vocals in the song “Symphony” by Clean Bandit, with a background image of dolphins and relatable text to add to the comedic effect. Harris’ team was quick to hop on the trend, capturing the attention of young voters; many found it hysterical that Harris’ team was posting videos with the same sense of humor as Gen Z. Four days after Harris’ post, Trump’s team also made a video to the same sound. Unfortunately for him, this resulted in users pointing out that it was coincidental that Trump’s page was posting similar videos to Harris’.
In addition to this, many found it comical that Trump’s team decided to use a sound by Larsson due to the fact that she has publicly announced her disdain for the former President online multiple times. In an Instagram post from 2020, she captioned a smiling selfie, “I love seeing Trump lose. It’s my daily medicine, my weekly energy, my monthly inspiration and my yearly motivation. His loss is the only reason I’m still alive. I was born to love and enjoy the failure that he has achieved.” To say the least, this outcome was much different than the response Harris received. Both posts were amusing, but when Trump posted the same trend, it seemed as though the majority of people were laughing at him rather than with him.
So what is it exactly that Harris’ social media team has done to gain more traction than Trump’s? Harris’ team chooses to showcase identity politics, or targeted content for different groups such as the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and feminists, reeling them in. Constituency-focused politics coupled with comedy and using popular TikTok audios is what has attracted an audience. A perfect example of this would be Harris’ team using the sound “Femininomenon” by popular artist Chappell Roan. In this context of a campaign strategy, Harris has provided something beloved by Gen-Z, as well as what she brings to the political table: she supports and uplifts women, which is something Trump fails to do.
Trump’s team has tried to hop on trends in an attempt to be relatable, but it simply isn’t enough. His lack of persuasive tactics fail to provide reason for people to support his cause. If he isn’t following a random trend on TikTok, then he is clipping videos of Harris and Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz to vilify them. He’s done this so much that it has become an ineffective campaign strategy, causing less engagement on his videos. Trump’s videos are so focused on poking fun at the other candidate that he fails to keep the focus on promoting policies and opinions of his own. He has not come up with anything new, funny, or original, instead posting repetitive content that Gen-Z is seeming to get tired of. Trends are constantly changing for a reason: nobody wants to see the same thing over and over again.
