Politics, re-wired
Channeling the rising power of digital crowds to change the conversation
Old-style political organizing—and messaging—no longer work. Today, it’s a battle over mobilization. Those who flourish now, post-Biden, will be those “new power” leaders best able to channel the participatory energy of those around them.
CHICAGO — Late yesterday afternoon, for a short while, I was able to visit a former political editor of mine in his top tier press box at the United Center, the convention center hosting this week’s Democratic National Convention.
Sharing a quick, pre-show coffee with him while counting the number of people below wearing White Dudes for Harris hats and Black Joy t-shirts, I kept thinking about a conversation I had with him and American historian Heather Cox Richardson for New Rules back in February—about the current state of our democracy.
Back then, way before Biden bowed out, Heather was just coming off a national book tour, and insisted there was a pro-democracy movement starting to form to counter Donald Trump’s bid for autocracy. “It’s happening just below the media’s radar,” in quite a few of the small towns across America, both blue and red. “Nobody’s picking up on this yet,” she said in February. “But it’s there, at the grassroots level, the true grassroots level—not on Astro Turf—and the movement is growing, even though mainline media isn’t seeing it yet, nor hearing it yet—not at all.”
They are now.
“I actually think what we’re seeing, with genuine enthusiasm, is something even larger than that,” says New York Times writer Mara Gay. Referring to the raucous, packed-house rallies the Harris-Walz ticket is staging in key swing states, attracting record venue crowds—17,000 attendees in Philadelphia, more than 15,000 each in Las Vegas and Detroit, more than 16,000 in Phoenix and more than 14,000 in Wisconsin—Gay said: “I think these are pro-democracy rallies and they’re spreading like wildfire” both online and off. More than 40 virtual ZOOM rallies, some hosted by celebrities and self-organized by groups including Cat Ladies for Kamala and Republicans for Harris, are also attracting thousands of people each, with attendees raising more than $35 million for the Harris-Walz ticket during these video chat sessions which often last for hours. Mara added: “The energy was already there to support democracy, but now, there is finally a team available to lead that movement, which gives us credible hope that we’re no longer headed into something darker come November.”
New Power Politics
Helping to lighten up and shape Harris’ image is a group of GenZ operators who understand that power works differently in today’s digital world. They’re powering the Harris campaign’s new brand face and voice by creating one of the first “new power” politics and communications models being used in this year’s political strategy business to define democracy as “freedom” to choose versus what Trump has to offer.
Harris’ rapid response team is also led by a GenZ team, and is working to both popularize her image on social media among young voters, many of whom are voting for the first time—and to work hard and fast to remix and flip Trump-made critical memes about Harris in real time, a move Biden rejected for himself but is catapulting Harris, in a good way, onto the “For You” pages of TikTokkers across the country and the globe. The Harris-Walz team and Democratic National Committee also gave high-access convention seat space to more than 200 social media influencers and “content creators”—a first for the DNC and a first-ever embrace and acknowledgement by Democratic convention organizers of the power of YouTube, TikTok and Instagram influencers to reach tens of millions of Americans directly, many of them younger voters who don’t read or watch traditional news. “We’re giving creators a front row seat to history,” convention communications director Matt Hill told Reuters.
In any other election year, much of the light-hearted content the Harris-Walz ticket is using on social media might have been cast off as being too silly. But in today’s world of fear and division, it’s been providing a well of relief and entertainment—at least for now—that is also helping Harris to inch up in the polls. According to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, she now is in a dead heat with Trump nationally, ahead of Trump in three of the five key swing states (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), tied with him in Arizona and catching up fast in Georgia.
While Trump continues to rant and lie on X and TikTok, and now court disaffected young men —bros, pods and streamers including Adin Ross, who has shared his dislike of women and Blacks on the new platforms Twitch and Kick— the Harris team is “steering clear of all of that toxic energy,” says GenZ influencer Deja Foxx. The content mix Harris is using also breezes beyond any of the traditional formalities of topic, tone and office, by including conversations between Harris and Walz about what kinds of tacos they prefer, deep dives into GenZ culture corners, the anointment of young singers such as Renee Rapp and Chappell Roan, who “communicate in symphonies of wincing self-deprecation” and — adds in funny clips of Harris making the rounds, some of them unearthed from years earlier. There’s one of her talking to a 10-year-old about carnitas tacos in a tone of lawyerly certainty. There’s another of her impersonating her mother-in-law, squealing in a Brooklyn accent, “You’re prettier than you are on television.” And, of course, there’s the now-famous coconut-tree speech, related in sing-song inflections, along with other clips made by influencers to celebrate her fashion style and—last night—to share copies of a video clip showing Tim Walz’ kids doing bunny ears behind him while he was being interviewed in his convention center seat by MSNBC. It made the “relatable” checkbox, and went viral on X, getting 6.9 million views within the first 15 hours after posting.
The Positivity Premium
And while Trump has long understood the entertainment value of breaking with social expectations, so now does Harris. She is, so far, exhibiting a more open, participatory, positive and peer-driven style which sharply contrasts with Trump’s continued references to American carnage and dark prophecies, delivered on social media via his old-style of craft-and-blast messaging.
Doom-scroll content worked for Trump during the 2016 election cycle, GOP strategists say, but dissing race and gender in personal attacks against Harris this time around isn’t helping him. “Trump is trying to get back on message,” GOP strategist Ron Bonjean told The Hill this week, “but he just can’t help going after (Harris) personally, and that might be backfiring with swing voters.” Added former GOP Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire: “There’s no question Trump is going through self-immolation. He’s killing himself. All swing states are won by independent votes, and he’s alienating the independent vote almost every day now with some foolish statement that marginalizes him. The majority of independents are educated women, and many are just turned off by what he says.”
The Harris team’s “joy frame” meanwhile, is continuing to gain resonance on TikTok: GenZ, media surveys show, prefer positive messaging. Between July 21 and August 8, the @KamalaHQ account on TikTok had posted 65 times and received a total of 385 million views, averaging 6 million views per post. As of today, the account has gained 3.7 million followers and has gathered 82.8 million likes from TikTokkers. So far, Trump’s TikTok account, which he’s had much longer, has wracked up more followers—10.4 million—but is getting far fewer likes (37.9 million).
In conversations today downtown, GenZ influencer Foxx, the Times’ Mara Gay and others agreed that the Harris goal is about building trust on TikTok and attracting, with more positive content, more communities of supporters able to “ease into” joining the sprawling, hyper-local digital movements resisting Trump’s pledge to replace democracy with Project 2025 policies to create a new foundation for autocracy.
I checked back in with my former politics editor to get his take.
He texted back a link to a story about how Walz today “Slams the GOP for restricting freedoms” and quotes Walz as saying: “Rights don’t work like pie. There’s enough for everybody.” It was a call to action for Harris-Walz supporters to remain focused on emphasizing optimism and the “rights and freedom” differences between what Trump and Harris are offering in their campaigns’ final stretch.
“Biden didn’t just pass the torch to Harris,” my journalism colleague said. “He made it more relatable by passing it to set it ablaze.”
Can this relatability frame survive for the next 11 weeks?
Could this be a new communications strategy Trump can’t defeat?
What’s your take on the new smooth unflappability we’re seeing so far from the Harris-Walz campaign? Is it a strategy that can close some divides and break a glass ceiling this time around? Let us know your thoughts.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect new poll data and how Donald Trump is updating his media strategy to appeal to young male streamers on new social media platforms.
Such an awesome newsletter! Thank you, Marcia!