This story is syndicated from the Viper Times at Verrado High School in Buckeye, AZ. The original version of the story ran here.
On August 6th, 2024, it was announced that Vice President Kamala Harris had chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate for the presidential election.
Many were surprised by Vice President Harris’s choice, with critics citing Arizona Senator Mark Kelly or Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as more viable options. However, choosing Walz was an extremely strategic move on Harris’s part.
As social media becomes more and more intertwined with our lives, the more it shows itself in areas outside technology. The TikTok obsession with ‘aesthetics’ is being exhibited in American politics as we progress towards the election in November.
Walz, a former high school social studies teacher and a perfect example of this phenomenon was the best solution to appease the ‘Never Trump’ voters, a subsection of the Republican Party that’s hesitant to cast a vote for election candidate Donald Trump. He has been referred to as a ‘midwestern dad’, and many of these red voters can relate to this image, as midwestern and southern states typically lean conservative. His roots and origins are enough to pull in red voters hesitant towards Trump, while his political views are liberal enough to pull in the blue.
This organic, rooted background is essential for the Democratic Party in the 2024 Election. After the numerous criminal trials former President Trump has faced, many Republican voters are hesitant to vote for him. So by seeing Walz on the blue ballot, they still feel as if a part of them is being represented, even if their opposite political party is put into power.
This can make one wonder if this would’ve been the Republican Party’s strategy if President Joe Biden remained as a candidate. Before he resigned from the election, many members of the Democratic Party were hesitant to cast a vote to keep Biden in power, citing his old age and apparent declining health as reasons.
Perhaps Donald Trump’s campaign would’ve chosen a more conservative counterpart to Tim Walz, to encourage Democrats to vote red, just as Walz now encourages Republicans to vote blue. Perhaps, Trump would’ve revamped his campaign on TikTok, just as Harris is doing now.
Back in the 2010s, the social media app Twitter, (now X), was the main platform for politics, and campaigns were mainly focused on tweets. But now, it appears the Harris campaign team has realized that the people who should be targeted are on the much younger app, TikTok.
Her campaign account, Kamala HQ, has 3.6 million followers, and 80.1 million likes on TikTok. The videos that are typically produced under this profile are very obviously curated towards young adults, with content such as edits and memes. It not only makes for good advertising for the campaign’s demographic, but it also gives Harris a likable kind of demeanor.
When young Americans see these comedic videos and edits, they view Harris in a more relatable light. Not only do these TikToks make her seem more down to earth, but it also makes it seem like Harris, or whoever is running her campaign, pays attention to trends. They’re always aware of what’s going on on the internet. So that then translates to Harris being more aware of political trends, and therefore more on top of American issues that need to be addressed. It makes Americans see her as a potential problem-solver and, therefore, as a strong potential president.
As America progresses, politics progress with it. So any new concepts that are being exhibited, such as aesthetics and social media, are bound to also appear in the most important events in the country. Politics is no longer just handing out fliers, going door to door to convince Americans to vote for a respective candidate. It’s now marketing, curating, and strategic social media managing. And one can be sure that these methods will keep appearing again and again as America forges forward in the Digital Age.
