There was a time in Vice President Harris’ campaign when it seemed like she had the youth vote all sewn up — a moment when it seemed like everyone was talking about coconut trees.
And on Tuesday, during a speech to young community leaders, Harris made a not-so-subtle reference to the initial youth excitement over her presidential bid.
“I ask you to remember the context in which you exist,” Harris said with a smile. “Yeah, I did that.”
It was a reference to a 2023 speech where Harris talked about something her mother used to say.
“My mother … would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'” Harris said in that 2023 speech. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
The line became a meme, and that meme became a digital rallying cry for Democrats who were eager for a younger face after souring on President Biden’s candidacy.
Harris embraced the meme. But not enough young voters embraced her campaign
The Harris campaign embraced the internet hype, noticeably altering their style online and becoming more active on youth-dominated platforms like TikTok.
But memes don’t vote, and as the campaign progressed, Harris fell short of where she needed to be with young voters in the polls.
The results of the election highlighted a sobering disconnect for Democrats. Harris championed issues important to young voters like gun violence prevention, reproductive rights and climate — and won among voters under 30 nationwide — but President-elect Donald Trump sizably cut into her margins.
While Biden won the youth vote by 24 points in 2020, Harris carried it by just 11 points and saw double-digit drops in several key swing states where she was counting on support.
Trump also courted young voters online and through interviews on podcasts popular with young men.
Here’s what Harris told young supporters in her speech
Harris made no mention of her performance with young voters in her speech on Tuesday. But she told her supporters they need to keep working.
“Many people have come up to me telling me they feel tired, maybe even resigned. Folks who have said to me that they’re not sure whether they have the strength, much less the desire to stay in the fight, but let me be very clear: no one can walk away.” Harris said. “We must stay in the fight.”
To some of the young organizers who were part of that initial internet frenzy around Harris’ candidacy, watching her reference the meme in her speech on Tuesday struck a chord.
“It’s sadly poetic how truly imperative acknowledging the context of which we exist will be as we figure out where we must go from here,” Democratic digital strategist Annie Wu Henry said in a statement.
“While the line was, yes, meme-ified and funny, it also brought so many people joy and enthusiasm. And those feelings can and must still exist,” she said.
Emma Mont, the vice president of the left-leaning social media account Organizer Memes, told NPR she was moved by Harris’ remarks.
“That’s the Kamala Harris I got excited for,” Mont said. “The version of her that’s self-aware and funny and encouraging. I’m sorry we don’t get to see four years of that person.”